MIKE GROSS | Sports WriterIn the run-up to the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open, we made a list of names to know in connection to the event, held at Lancaster Country Club.
As Lancaster prepares to welcome the USWO back next summer, most of the names on the old list wouldn’t be on a new one. None of the golfers - Michelle Wie, Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson - are likely to be.
One golfer is a lock to be on the list, likely near the top: Rose Zhang.
Zhang, 20, made the cut in the USWO at age 16. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2020, as a high school kid, became the world’s top-ranked female amateur a week later and remained No. 1 until she turned pro last month, the longest such stretch since the women’s world amateur rankings have existed.
During it, she won the NCAAs for Stanford (twice, unprecedented), the U.S. Junior Amateur (yes, she won the women’s amateur before she won the junior amateur), the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, has been low amateur in the USWO, the Women’s British Open and the LPGA championship and shot 63, and 13 under par over 54 holes, in a college tournament at Pebble Beach, where this year’s USWO begins Thursday.
Zhang joined the LPGA Tour 30 says ago, and won the first event she played in, the Mizuho Americas Open.
Her second event, the KPMG LPGA championship, was a major. No one, male or female, in the history what we think of as pro golf, has won their first two events, the second of them a major.
Zhang didn’t contend until Sunday, when she shot 31 on the front nine at venerable Baltusrol, in New Jersey. After she birdied the 11th, she was within one shot of the lead for the first of what would turn out to be three times.
The fans understood what they were watching, according to Sports Illustrated’s Gabby Herzig via Twitter:
“The Rose effect is real. She sinks her putt, entire gallery starts moving to the next tee. (Zhang’s playing partners) still had par putts to make. Reminds me of what PGA Tour players say about playing with a certain Stanford alum…’’
That would be Tiger, of course, although neither he nor Zhang are technically alums, having turned pro before graduating.
Zhang made two bogeys coming in, and made par on the final hole despite driving it in the water. She finished eighth at 70-74-68-67-279, five under par.
Let’s not get carried away. Prodigies are more common in the women’s game. Wie was a pro at 16, way more famous then than Zhang is now. With five wins and one major, she is semi-retired at 33, although she is in the field at Pebble this week.
Lydia Ko reached world No. 1 at age 17. She won just twice over a four-year stretch starting in July of 2016, and is now, at age 26, resurgent at world No. 3.
Brooke Henderson finished fifth in the 2015 USWO, with a final-round 66, at age 17. She was Monday-qualifying for LPGA events then because she was too young to turn pro.
Now 25, Henderson has become a star, but not a transcendent one. She ranks 11th in the world at the moment.
Zhang seems different. She has the ability, at least for stretches, to dominate world-class courses. Even just staying at Stanford for two whole years, quaint by current standards, shows a patience and big-picture vision golf rewards lavishly, and obviously hasn’t cost her anything.
If she wins at Pebble Beach this week, look out.
By the time she hits Lancaster next year, she’ll need no introduction.
