ORLANDO, Fla. — Rose Zhang is back at Stanford. Well, technically she’s in Florida this week for the LPGA season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions – to the dismay of her professors.
Zhang stayed up past midnight Tuesday doing schoolwork, making that 7:30 a.m. pro-am a quick turnaround. She told the media Wednesday afternoon that she’s carrying a full course load with classes in journalism, political science and media psych.
A self-described people pleaser, the 20-year-old pro said she’s starting to learn the crucial life skill of saying no, which judging by the sound of her to-do list is becoming increasingly essential.
“Coming into this event it was a little bit of a hustle to kind of get things in order,” she said. “I have new clubs in the bag. I’m trying to figure out my putter situation. Health-wise been a lot happening, too. So just a little bit of adjustments here and there, which kind of I guess throws off your offseason schedule.
“I also moved, so I’ve been moving three different places. Moving from Irvine to Vegas, Vegas to Stanford. And I also finished week one of school. … It’s been fun.”
Rose Zhang holds up the trophy after winning the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo: Adam Hunger/Associated Press)
Zhang won her first LPGA event as a professional, the Mizuho Americas Open, one week after clinching her second NCAA title. The victory qualified her for the TOC, which will be her only start this month. She’ll take off the spring Asian swing (four events) and return to action at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship at Palos Verdes Golf Club. She plans to graduate with a degree in communications after five years at Stanford in 2026.
“Stanford has a requirement of 180 units,” she explained. “I finished around 90-ish units. I’m just going to keep doing the 20 units per winter quarter. Maybe take a couple online classes if I’m allowed to in other quarters.”
This week Zhang has all new Callaway clubs, including the Epic Forged Star irons. She’d played with Apex irons since age 13 and made the switch in an effort to gain more distance control.
“Even though I was hitting really well with the Apex irons, there were some cases where my ball was too hot coming off the face,” she said. “It’s been generating a couple different noises that I would probably not appreciate as much on the golf course.”
As for her health, Zhang said she began…
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