IT’S BEEN LESS than one month since Rose Zhang turned pro.
And this week, she tees it up in her first major as a professional at the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey. Zhang will be among the 156 women golfers competing for the major title and monumental purse (to be announced on Friday, June 23).
As the 20-year-old prepares for the only major she hasn’t competed in as an amateur, she faces pressure and expectations to make history again at a storied venue.
On May 26, the Stanford sophomore announced via Instagram that she was “officially turning professional.” The post came just days after she won back-to-back NCAA individual titles, marking her 12th win in her 20th collegiate career event, breaking the previous school record held by Tiger Woods (26 events), Maverick McNealy (45 events) and Patrick Rodgers (35 events), among others.
Her professional debut at the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, in early June, Zhang competed in a playoff against major winner Jennifer Kupcho and claimed her first pro victory. The victory made Zhang the first woman to win a professional golf tournament on her first try in 72 years, since Beverly Hanson’s…
