At Women’s PGA, Rose Zhang finally finding herself after ‘unorthodox’ year

FRISCO, Texas — Rose Zhang saw all of this going differently.

After playing in the Tournament of Champions in January, the 22-year-old rising star elected to take two months off in order to go back to school at Stanford for a quarter. During the winter quarter, Zhang sat through long lectures on politics, communications, dreams and Jewish literature. But she didn’t play golf. It was all part of a plan that Zhang worked out with her team. She wanted to “bring balance” back into her life, so she shelved the clubs and was just a Stanford student. As far as her world-class golf was concerned, Zhang and her team mapped out the events she wanted to play, when she needed to be at her peak, and put a plan in place to get there while prioritizing her Stanford education.

But best-laid plans often go to waste. Zhang, in this rare case, is no exception.

Next came a neck injury that forced her to miss The Chevron Championship, the year’s first major, and limited her practice time on the course. When she returned to competitive action at the Mizuho Americas Open, Zhang had only been able to swing a club for a few days. Zhang missed the cut at Liberty National and then arrived at the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills having only played two competitive rounds since the end of March.

And yet, Zhang saw the time away from her clubs as a bonus. Her meteoric rise from Stanford phenom to LPGA star — Zhang was the first player to win in her pro debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951 — has been both rewarding and overwhelming.

“I think the break was a blessing in disguise,” Zhang told Golf Channel’s “Live From” at Erin Hills. “I was able to slow down a little bit. Everything has happened so quickly, and then my offseasons didn’t feel like offseasons since I was taking the full course load when I was back at school. All in all, I think my mental state is pretty good. I’m very mentally [strong]. I feel grateful for the process I’ve put in and the efforts I’ve put in.”

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She shot 76-72 over the first two rounds at Erin Hills to miss the cut by one, but finally Zhang felt like she was back on the track she had mapped out to start the year. She was behind, but on the path back.

“I feel like that week was pretty important for me,” Zhang said Thursday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship of her two rounds at Erin Hills. “Just because that second round kind of got me back into understanding how to play competitively. The first day I was there and I just didn’t feel like I was in a place where I want to be in terms of my game. I could barely get the ball off the ground, and I felt like that was probably more difficult mentally. So the fact that I could put up a decent score, I was just one player off from the cut, made me at least feel like, okay, we have a lot of good elements that we can move forward and work on.”

The work continued after the missed cut at Erin Hills, and Zhang went out Thursday at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco and gained over a stroke in three of the four major categories, with only her putting stopping her from posting a better score. In total, Zhang gained 4.735 strokes Tee-to-Green to post an even-par 72. She sat four shots back of Jeeno Thitikul after the morning wave, but felt encouraged that her world-beating game was finally starting to reemerge.

“Honestly, this year has been very unorthodox,” Zhang said after her round. “I felt like I was in a good groove last year, also the year before, but this year kind of had its moments, where obviously the neck injury kind of flared up. I spent hours and hours doing work at school, and I feel like that all played a part in the stress, and coming back and trying to put up performances. Right now, I’m trying to go back into a more process-oriented mindset of trying to get things one step at a time. Starting with being healthy and then working on the game again.

“I feel like finally I’m kind of getting back into competitive golf again. I played back-to-back majors, but I always thought that just getting myself prepared and playing as best as possible was the game plan.”

Zhang’s game plan for the rest of a hot, humid Thursday in northern Texas? Head to the putting green to straighten out the club that held her down in Round 1.

If she can do that, Rose Zhang just might put herself in contention for her first major title.

That was part of the plan.