Rose Zhang may change way American prodigies view college golf

AUGUSTA, Georgia ­– People told Rose Zhang that college golf would ruin her. She hated that.

“I wanted to push myself to the limit,” she said on the eve of the final round of the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Those limits were laid out for the world to see on Saturday at the Augusta National Golf Club, where Zhang clawed her way to victory in a two-hole playoff over Georgia’s own Jenny Bae, clinching the only big title that had eluded her in amateur golf. Zhang has dominated at every level, and her decision to spend the past two years at Stanford might change the way the next great American prodigy views college golf during a time of unprecedented exposure and NIL cash.

For the past 20 years, phenoms in the women’s game have skipped the books and gone straight to the LPGA. Before Zhang set off to beat the world, however, she wanted to find herself, something that’s incredibly hard to do when cocooned by family on a professional stage.

“The big reason to go to college,” said Zhang’s longtime instructor George Pinnell, “it’s not for the education. It’s to get away from the family and grow yourself – do all the little things that mom and dad have always done.”

Stanford head coach Anne Walker told Zhang when recruiting her that there likely weren’t any nuggets she was going to teach her to make her a better player. What she was already doing was clearly enough. Where Walker felt like Stanford could help Zhang was in her aspirations to be a professional, all the elements that come into play beyond the technical prowess.

For example, at the end of Zhang’s first semester at Stanford, Walker told her players to put their clubs away during the offseason. Zhang returned to practice in January banged up and battling a horrific flu. Walker later learned that Zhang had been hitting 200 balls a day during what was supposed to be a down period.

“You have to learn that rest and recovery takes as much discipline as hitting 200 balls or 200 chips,” Walker told her.

A disciplined Zhang took the lesson to heart.

In two years at Stanford, Zhang has a winning percentage of 56.25 through 16 career starts. Her nine victories are two shy of tying the all-time Cardinal record, held by Tiger Woods (26 starts), Patrick Rodgers (35 starts) and Maverick McNealy (45 starts). She has four starts left in what could be her final semester of college.

Zhang’s peers are awed by mostly everything Zhang does, from her work ethic to her keen…