Rose Zhang, the rising golf star of 2022

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2022 was the breakout year for 19-year-old Rose Zhang, who has been the best amateur female golfer for 117 weeks. After winning three fall starts in 2021, Zhang proceeded to win USGA championships, the NCAA as well as junior, amateur, and college events.

This included the team national championship at Stanford, two Curtis Cup titles for USA, three Mark H. McCormack medals, Pan American Games gold medals, Spirit International, the Espirito Santo Trophy, and the Annika award. She also placed 4^th at the Lamkin Invitational and was runner-up at the Gunrock Invitational and the Meadow Club Women’s Intercollegiate.

However, Zhang has no plans of turning professional yet, and instead wants to focus on performance and daily character development and has displayed constancy throughout her season. She won the NCAA title by three strokes and did not give up her lead throughout the tournament, and was a key part of US’s Curtis League victory.

Moreover, winning the US Girls’ Jr., the US Women’s Amateur, and the NCAA events, has only been achieved by Pat Hurst before, and in the men’s category by Tiger Woods. Perhaps the only disappointment for Zhang was in the Women’s World Amateur Team in France, where her miss pushed the game to the tiebreaker, where the US lost to Sweden. For now, Zhang has talked about continuing her college education at Stanford at least for another year before turning professional.