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2024 LPGA Tournament of Champions first round scores, updates

2024 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions

Rose Zhang of the United States walks off the ninth tee during the first round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club on January 18, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

Rose Zhang revealed a midseason snafu last year that helped explain why her momentum slowed down after four top-10 finishes in her first five starts as a professional, including a victory. Simply put: Her dad left her putter on a train in London. It didn’t have her name on it, though there was an Evian head cover on it.

“From then on, even at AIG (Women’s British Open), I could not putt because the specs were wrong, the putter was an inch shorter, wrong shaft. Every weight was wrong. So I just didn’t know where the putter was going to go,” said Zhang.

“Throughout the season obviously everyone is talking about my putting, how it low-key deteriorated. And it was because it was hard for me to visualize the putts going in again.”

At the Grant Thornton Invitational, where she finally had a replica of the putter she’d used for two years to basically win everything in amateur golf, she noticed – after the round – that the face had been altered during travel.

An exasperated Zhang said she couldn’t look at that Odyssey O-Works putter again and decided to go in a difference direction.

“We’re slowly getting there,” said Zhang, who opened with a 3-under 69. “I’m very grateful for the experience. It just reminds me to check, check, check.”

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