Nelly Korda’s historic win streak on the LPGA Tour has officially ended at the Cognizant Founders Cup, but one of the fastest-rising stars in the women’s game is back on top: 20-year-old Rose Zhang.
Zhang defeated Madelene Sagstrom in a back-and-forth two-horse race on Sunday at Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey. Starting the day one shot off the lead, Zhang came back from a three-stroke deficit after Sagstrom carded a 3-under 33 on the front nine. According to The Athletic statistics contributor Justin Ray, Zhang had a win probability of nine percent standing on the 14th hole of the Tillinghast course.
But the Stanford product — still enrolled as a student and pursuing her communications degree — defied that figure, carding four birdies in her final five holes to win by two.
Zhang drained a 10-foot birdie putt on the last to shut out Sagstrom with a bogey-free 66, claiming her second LPGA victory. The dramatic finish comes just before the anniversary of Zhang’s first LPGA win at the Mizuho Americas Open, where she entered the winner’s circle in her tour debut. Since that victory, Zhang has posted six top-10 finishes but struggled to find herself at the top of the leaderboard as she grappled with adjustments to life as a professional. On Sunday, she found…
