By: Max Bechtoldt
While the talk of the women’s golf world has been centered around Nelly Korda, another young American phenom has stolen the early headlines at the Founders Cup.
20-year-old Rose Zhang shot a flawless -9 63, the best round in the two previous times the tournament has been played here. There was nothing that didn’t go perfectly for Zhang. She hit 11 fairways, 16 greens and had only 25 putts. To have only 25 putts with 16 greens in regulation is absurd.
Zhang has a two-stroke lead going into the second round, where she will play in very cold and likely very wet conditions. Often the morning wave experiences the easier conditions, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this week.
Zhang has had an erratic year, dealing with the finish to her school year at Stanford while juggling her growing spotlight. She has two top-10s on the season, one of which was at the T Mobile Matchplay, where she was terrific in the stroke play portion.
The New York area is clearly a comfort spot for her. Zhang won at her first ever professional event at Liberty National last year. Her return to New Jersey is going strong so far.
