By: Max Bechtoldt
Rose Zhang probably won’t be thrilled with how her round ended, but it was enough to likely keep her within striking distance on the weekend at the JM Eagle LA Championship.
Zhang followed up a rock-solid -2 score on Thursday with another 70 on Friday. Though statistically the two rounds match almost exactly, the scorecards were another story.
Thursday Rose played her game, keep the ball generally out of trouble and avoid putting big numbers on the card. She had three birdies and just one bogey. Friday was a bit of a different story.
After a hot start, in which Zhang birdied three of the first seven holes, she fell victim to the difficult par 4 17 with a double bogey. The bounce back was immediate though, as she hit a beautiful tee shot into the par 3 18th, giving her a relatively stress-free birdie.
Zhang actually rose to second on the leaderboard at -6 after two birdies to start her second nine. The wind started to really blow though, making the conditions tougher and in turn, Zhang’s score higher. She bogeyed 5 and 6 coming in and surrounded those two holes with pars.
“In the morning it was pretty calm, so I was able to capitalize on a couple shots and gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities,” said Zhang. “Going into kind of the back half of the nine, it was definitely a little bit more difficult; a lot more difficult actually.”
Both days Zhang has hit 11 fairways and had 30 putts. The afternoon scores should be relatively high, so it is anyone’s guess where the lead may be, but the Los Angeles area native looks poised to compete on the weekend.
