Rose Zhang always wanted to walk this road, no matter how hard it got.
Golf has always been Zhang’s defining feature, or more specifically excelling at golf. She won 12 times at Stanford, including back-to-back NCAA Individual championships. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She turned pro and became the first player in 72 years to win in her pro debut at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open.
But while golf is an essential part of Rose Zhang’s DNA, it is not all she is. She wanted more. Even when she turned pro after her sophomore year at Stanford, Zhang always planned to finish her degree. Juggling life as a full-time professional golfer with a Stanford course load was difficult. So Zhang stepped back from full-time golf on the LPGA last winter to focus on school and achieve a lifelong dream that had nothing to do with birdies and bogeys.
What followed was a trying time that asked a lot of the 22-year-old.
Taking 22 credits in the winter while trying to stay on top of her game took a toll on her body. She suffered neck spasms on both sides, which left her unable to practice or play for two months. She missed the cut in her return and then played in four majors, with her best finish being a T35 at the Evian. Glimpses of the Rose Zhang of old showed as she contended at the FM Championship in Boston, showing her that everything she wants — the golf and the degree — are attainable if you don’t flinch when it gets tough.
“I would say this year is the first time I really hit a hard struggle bus in my entire golf career,” Zhang said in Boston. “But I will say I think the success helps in that you know that it’s in you, but it also might hinder your look to the present and the future just because you expect way too much out of yourself in your circumstance. So I think I’m navigating that, and it’s helped me grow as a person and even as a player.
“It’s as simple as sticking to the process and making sure you’re getting little bits of positivity in there. It’s something that’s kind of new to me, but I feel like I’ve been at a really good trajectory and I’ll be able to keep building from there.”
Zhang will tee it up at this week’s Fortinet Founders Cup at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club, almost on the other end of a long, arduous journey that has tested her in every sense. With her final term of classes complete, Zhang just has one 10-page paper between her and a different kind of success. She’ll walk in June, but for all intents and purposes, Zhang is set to enter a new chapter — one that will be foreign to her because of its singular focus.
“These last two, three weeks was when I had to come [to terms] with the fact and sit with the fact that I will be Rose the golfer,” Zhang said Tuesday at the Fortinet Founders Cup. “I think for a long time I was always one foot into academia and one foot into the professional world and actually playing, but I’ve never really thought of myself as two feet into the pro career.”
Zhang turned a star amateur career into quick success on the LPGA. She won the Mizuho Americas Open and Founders Cup. Her star was rising at a time when the LPGA needed talents with an infectious personality.
But sometimes destiny beckons you in a different direction, one that speaks to a separate part of your soul. Zhang never thought twice about putting golf on the back burner to finish what she started at Stanford. That decision tested her mentally and physically. But she never wavered, and the lessons that followed should help her as she fully steps back into the pro golf spotlight.
“I would say I did have to put in a lot of time and energy into thinking about why I wanted to do these things, about why I wanted to play tour golf, go to college, everything in between,” Zhang said Tuesday. “It was a big personal journey for me. I think when things get really tough, and you’re situated with 60 hours a week of class and work on top of sponsor days and traveling, and still trying to practice for tournaments, I think the balance is very difficult. I had to learn what was the limit for me and what works best with having a really difficult schedule like that.
“But most importantly, it was important to keep the faith [that] this is a journey, and this is how I’m supposed to grow and learn. That’s kind of how I was able to come to this end.”
Those lessons — dedication, patience, perseverance — can be applied universally, whether you’re researching early civilizations or grinding over a five-footer to save par. Over the past 16 months, Zhang has soaked in every part of the road she chose to travel. She played in majors but was rusty. The competitor in her struggled with the temporary reality of not being as sharp as she had been for most of her conscious life. It would have been easy to reverse course and choose to live in the comfort of the familiar. But Zhang never regretted her choice. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Undoubtedly, with the full payoff still unknown, she continues to digest everything her journey has taught her.
“I think this was probably one of the most important achievements for my personal development as a person,” Zhang said of finishing her degree. “I feel like there is obviously a lot of noise about whether it was a good decision or not. Personally, I think when I turned pro end of sophomore year I’ve always envisioned wanting to finish, regardless of how difficult it would be, regardless of how much my body would break down or feasibility-wise how that would work.
“Never really gave it a second thought. To see the end of the finish line coming very close … means the world.”
As for what the new reality awaiting Zhang looks like, she isn’t sure. But there’s a freedom in the unknown, and Rose Zhang is ready for whatever her next chapter brings — ready to see what life only as Rose Zhang, the golfer, looks like.
“I’m not sure how it will turn out,” Zhang said. “I’m excited to see where it goes. If it’s something that I’m still extremely passionate about. I’m 100% going to dive all in. This whole year really in my opinion will be my first official rookie year of like, okay, this is where I’m going to take this game on and see how best I can do in the sport.
“We’re going to figure things out along the way.”