Q&A: Rose Zhang on her TGL investment, the LPGA’s future and slow play

There are a lot of things to admire about Rose Zhang. Before turning pro two years ago, she was arguably the winningest amateur in the history of women’s golf. Now she’s competing on the LPGA and already has a pair of professional wins at age 21. Zhang is as poised as they get and her youth — combined with a swing that could make a robot look inconsistent — has allowed her to become one of the faces of the game’s Gen-Z movement.

Zhang is doing it all while attending Stanford University as a communications major, taking 22 credits this winter (she completes one 10-week quarter each year to balance school with the international LPGA schedule). As Zhang finishes her third-to-last quarter of classes en route to a 2027 graduation date, she caught up with The Athletic to talk about the state of the LPGA, her adjusted preseason game plan and her new foray into golf’s simulator experiment. Zhang is now a minority investor in The Bay Golf Club, TGL’s San Francisco team. According to TGL, active discussions are taking place with the LPGA to devise competitions that could integrate top female players. With virtual holes, players in a mixed event could all hit from the same tee boxes with the technology adjusting for appropriate distances. The prospect of that arrangement is…