Maybe there was some nerve. How could there not be? This was the next big thing Firstly Something big, after all.
So please forgive Liberty National Golf Club’s senior jersey announcer for this hiccup:
“please welcome …
Chang Rose.
Excuse me. All good, though. People still clap. And the woman of the hour — Rose Zhang, that is — settled down to her professional debut.
Well, well, how did that happen she do, now you beg to know? You may recall that Zhang has a longer resume than her final opening drive Thursday at the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open, which yes, she found the right track. She’s the first woman to win two NCAA Division I singles titles. She’s won 12 times at Stanford, no, not even that Tiger Man has done it. She won the American Woman Award. In April, she won the Augusta National Amateur Championship. And on and on. But but but. We’ve seen the phenomena before. Some of it was unusual. And some were less than. The weight of expectation is great.
Which makes for one very good Thursday answer.
But first the basics. You played well, thank you very much. Zhang hit five holes, sank three and shot two under the 70s. She lunged at 13. She only missed one lane. And only four greens. But she took 30 kicks, and she regretted some of those afterward. She’ll start Friday with five strokes off the lead.
Then they asked her about her first ever bird. Two holes came in, on the par-3 2nd.
And if you really want to know how it went And How could it go, well, check her response.
“Does it ever occur to you that this is my first birdie as a pro on the second hole? Did that thought occur to you at all?”
“Absolutely not, because — you know, as a golfer, you know there are many holes after that [and] You can get a birdie on one hole and then triple the next.
“So I just keep everything in perspective, keep things realistic, and I felt very composed there.
“I didn’t have a lot of nerves once I started playing. After that, I was smooth sailing.”
dang, chang. If you were a fan, you were glad she combed the first bird. But you’re honestly ecstatic that she wasn’t lost in that moment. or stunned. Of course, was she honest there? We will never know. Maybe there was some Internal exhalation takes place. However, you still like to think that she wouldn’t answer that way if you didn’t at least think about it. It’s part of her operation.
there is more. Then a reporter asked this:
“Did you at any point during the tour think, Oh, I’m a pro? Did I feel different? Did that fact affect you at all?”
“I would say I realized my classification being a Pro is definitely different. I thought about it once or twice, but from a full perspective, I was like, This is another 18 holes. I’m still competing.
“I think it helps that I’ve played LPGA events before as an amateur, so I understand what the pressure is, what it’s like to have a couple here, and play against the best in the world.
“Nothing was too different, but it was definitely a different experience.”
Here is where we will notice that Zhang plays golf. Golf has only one winner. And there will be second guesses and double bogeys along the way. But on the first day, I played well. And it looked pretty good, right?
Or at least better than the first anchor.
We’ll end things with this exchange:
“You come on tour and there are a lot of people expecting you to be the next great player. How do you handle that?”
“I don’t know. I honestly think there are people around me who treat me very naturally, who treat me as I am, and that keeps me grounded.
“I have an absolutely amazing support system around me, and it enables me to do what I do. I don’t really have to think about other people’s expectations. Like I said before, I think it’s a compliment that they think I’m capable of more.
“But on a general level, I think I have people who just want me to do my best and push me to be better.”