All your favorite teams and sources in one place

Build your feed

Your Teams.
All Sources.

Build your feed

© 2024 BVM Sports. Best Version Media, LLC.

No results found.
Could Rose Zhang become the Tiger Woods of women’s golf?
Rose Zhang’s first victory on the LPGA Tour came just 13 days after she won her second-consecutive NCAA national championship with Stanford. (Credit: Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Sports)

Could Rose Zhang become the Tiger Woods of women’s golf?

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (BVM) – Rose Zhang has been destined for stardom in the sport of golf for quite some time. But over the past few years, the 20-year-old has proven she has the potential to become an all-time great.

In 2020, Zhang won the U.S. Women’s Amateur at 17 years old. Just a year later, she won another USGA event at the 2021 United States Girls’ Junior Golf Championship. Both years, she was awarded the Mark H. McCormack Medal given to the top-ranked amateur in golf.

Zhang also won the award in 2022, the same year she claimed her first NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship. The Stanford sophomore repeated as an NCAA champion last month, which followed yet another impressive victory at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April.

Shortly after winning the 2023 NCAA title, Zhang declared she was turning pro, competing in her first-ever LPGA event as a professional this past weekend in New Jersey at the Mizuho Americas Open. 

With all she has accomplished as of late, there was plenty of intrigue as Zhang made her way to Liberty National Golf Course. Right away, she delivered, shooting a 2-under-par round of 70 on Thursday, and following that up with a round of 69 on Friday to put herself in contention going into the weekend.

Perhaps the highlight of Zhang’s first pro tournament came on Saturday, as she shot an impressive round of 66 that gave her a two-shot lead going into Sunday. While she didn’t have her best stuff in the final round, the 20-year-old managed to grind out a 2-over-par 74 that got her into a playoff with Jennifer Kupcho.

On the second hole of the playoff, Zhang stuck a clutch approach shot to within six feet of the pin. From there, she would two-putt for par to take home her first LPGA victory just 13 days after winning her second national championship.

With the win, Zhang became the first golfer since Beverly Hanson in 1951 to win in her professional debut on the LPGA Tour. The victory earned Zhang $412,500, as well as an automatic membership on the LPGA Tour after she played the Mizuho Americas Open on a sponsorship exemption.

“What is happening? I just can’t believe it,” Zhang said during an interview following her first LPGA win. “It was just last week when I won NCAAs with my teammates, and to turn pro and come out here, it’s just been amazing. I’ve enjoyed the journey. (Jason Gilroyed) was on my bag the whole time. I had so many cheers around me. All my friends and family. Just so thankful.”

The win captured the attention of the entire golf world, including past major champions on the men’s side like Justin Rose, and more notably Tiger Woods, who both congratulated Zhang on Twitter on Sunday. 

With all she has accomplished over the past few years, and even just within the last few months, the question now becomes just how far Zhang’s golf career can go. She is already one of the most-hyped players to join the LPGA Tour since one of her mentors, Michelle Wie West, did so when she was just a teenager back in 2005. Zhang also just signed a historic sponsorship deal with Delta Airlines alongside Wie West, who was fittingly the host of the Mizuho Americas Open that Zhang claimed her first pro victory at.

Back in the mid 2000s, Wie West drew comparisons to Woods. While she never quite lived up to the incredibly high expectations, perhaps Zhang will.

Of course, the obvious connection between Zhang and Woods is that they both golfed at Stanford. While competing for the Cardinal, Zhang won 12 of the 20 tournaments she played in, which is actually one more, as well as a better percentage, than the 11 of 26 events Woods won in college. Zhang also set NCAA single-season records for scoring average in both her freshman (69.68) and sophomore (68.81) years.

Woods had a very notable and decorated career as an amateur golfer, which Zhang certainly matches through her U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior Golf victories among several other milestones, including setting the record for most weeks ranked as the No. 1 amateur in the world (141).

In 1996, Woods turned pro at age 20, just like Zhang has, and became the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. He claimed two victories that year, with his first coming at the Las Vegas Invitational. However, it was 1997 in which Woods really proved his potential to the world, becoming the youngest player to win the Masters at just 21 years old, the first of 15 major victories in Woods’ career.

Zhang has already had the chance to compete in four of the LPGA’s five major championships in her young career, impressively tying for 11th at the Chevron Championship in 2020. As a result, a first major championship win may not be that far away for the Stanford product.

If and when she wins her first major, comparisons to Patty Berg, who has won an LPGA record 15 major titles, may begin. Zhang will also look to catch Kathy Whitworth, who won a record 88 LPGA events. 

Off the course, Zhang became the first college athlete to sign an NIL deal with Adidas, giving a similar feel to the lucrative deal Woods signed with Nike when he turned pro. Over the ensuing years, there is no doubt the effect Woods had on the next generation of golfers, and already at just 20 years old, Zhang is doing the same.

Time will tell if Zhang can reach the level of success of the likes of Berg, Whitworth or even Annika Sorenstam, or if she can become a legendary figure in the sport on the women’s side just as Woods has been on the men’s side throughout his legendary golf career. 

They’re high expectations being placed on the young golfer, who still is just a 20-year-old college student.  

However, her resume to this point certainly has her in the conversation, and earning a win in her first-ever LPGA event is a pretty special way to begin what could be a historic professional career.