As a team, Stanford shot an even-par 284 on Monday, the best round of the day by two shots over San Jose State, who sits two strokes back of the Cardinal with 18 holes left to play on Tuesday.
“I can’t say enough about the heart and perseverance of this group,” Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women’s Golf Anne Walker said following the round. “Through five, six, seven holes we were eight or nine over, and you see a lot of teams that carry that with them. We never see that from these players. They’re so resilient and they never give up until the very end. I’m proud of their mindset, it was high performance today — I’m very proud of them today.”
Zhang fired her second straight 3-under 68 to open up a two shot lead over Texas’ Sophie Guo and San Jose State’s Lucia Lopez-Ortega. Zhang sits at 6-under for the tournament.
Freshman Megha Ganne fired her second consecutive 1-under 70 and is tied for fifth at 2-under with one round remaining. Fellow classmate Kelly Xu’s even-par 71 on Monday helped bolster the Cardinal throughout the round.
Zhang started slow, by her standards, on Monday and was 2-over after five holes. Following birdies on No. 7 and No. 9, she made the turn at even par for the day. On the back, Zhang made birdies on Nos. 13, 16, and 18 to close out her round atop the leaderboard.
“When Rose was 2-over, as a Coach I was excited to see what would happen,” Walker said. “Those are emotions that Rose doesn’t have to work through very often, so I was excited to see how she’d respond and work through the frustration. Rose being Rose, she worked through them better than most and comes out at 3-under. I’d say it was remarkable, but it’s Rose Zhang we are talking about, and I’m out of words to describe her at this point.”
As is often a trademark of Zhang’s, the consistency in her play as vaulted her to the top of the leaderboard once again. Zhang has played the Par 4s and Par 5s at 3-under apiece, while shooting even-par on the Par 3s. She is second in the field with 11 birdies through 36 holes.
Tuesday’s final round will feature a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m. PT. The Cardinal will go off holes No. 1-5 and play with San Jose State, USC and Ohio State.
Therese Hession Regional Challenge (Palos Verdes Golf Club, par 71)
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