Rose Zhang: From amateur icon to LPGA star – a journey of ambition

Rose Zhang: It's important for any athlete to have a good system in place, especially when you're constantly under high pressure and you don't have a lot of time on your hands to dilly-dally. Essentially, I felt that this year was a time of growth where I was able to really connect with my physical therapist and trainer. I implemented certain things in my schedule to prioritize the sustainability of my body. I was also able to work a little bit more with my coach on getting some swing changes in place. Before this year I didn't really think about having to check in with people on my team every single week. But now I do that, regardless of whether or not it's an off week or if it's a tournament week. That's been very helpful, especially given the fact that I can keep myself in check with these experts to help me get better.

I watch an Anime show called Crunchyroll that I grew up watching with my older brother. I also watch true crime shows, which are not ideal to watch at night, but they are still very interesting and mentally stimulating.

I always love hiking Stanford’s Dish Loop Trail because it is so close in proximity to campus. Down in Southern California, I love the Top of the World hike in Laguna Beach because it looks over the ocean. I also really like the Half Moon Bay Trail, which has a couple great walks alongside the beach, which is absolutely gorgeous.

Golf brought me to faith. It’s a sport that can be lonely and self-deprecating. You feel like you're not enough, and it's very frustrating. Sometimes you are so locked up in the identity of just making a putt or seeing a shot. Feeling like that's not enough is what really brought me to Christ, just because there was a realization that there's a lot more to me than just golf. I felt like a lot of the decisions that I made early on, including going to college and turning pro, aren’t parts of a typical athlete story. It's either you don't go to college and you just go pro, or you graduate college, and then you figure out what you want to do after that. I think God has provided timing for me to do certain things in my life, and that's why I made a lot of the decisions that I did. I have a lot of great faith in whatever is to come.

I have never really been too awestruck by athletes, but Steph Curry is someone that I've constantly looked up to. At Stanford, after we won the 2022 NCAA Women’s golf national championship, I sat next to him at a team dinner for three hours at Jerry Yang’s house. He had just come back from Japan, so he was jet lagged, but was very willing to share his personal experiences with the whole team.

It made me realize that there is still a significant gap between being an amateur versus a professional. You have a lot more people helping you on the professional circuit, but there's a little bit more pressure. We’re playing against credible people in amateur golf, but everyone on the professional level has been a champion somewhere. So if you're compiling 150 world class players in one place every week, it's gonna be a grind.

My goal is to play the best that I can. I want to do things that will inspire people, but I also want to build character for myself. I don't think there's any real objective of how many tournaments I want to win, or anything of that sort. I want to put myself in contention and be able to play with the best.

I don't think about that. It's actually interesting because even when I was an amateur, I never thought about being world number 1. And it turned out I was world number 1 for three years.

I don't have a story like that, but I wish I did honestly. I think it's super cool that people can dream big, but this all just sort of happened. I think one thing that I try not to overlook is that even though I didn't actively have the aspiration to be number 1 in the world, I sure worked like I wanted to be. I worked very hard, and I tried my best in doing the best that I could, and it so happens that I was able to perform really well at certain points and be consistent about it.

There's so much potential for the women's game and for the LPGA Tour to grow. We have a new commissioner now, Craig Kessler, and he's working really hard to help this tour become better on all fronts. I'm really excited to see where it goes and I think a lot of the players are too. It's a whole movement that everyone's pretty excited to be a part of.