Rose Zhang is making her first start of 2024 at the HGV Tournament of Champions, but after Sunday’s final round we won’t be seeing the 20-year-old on Tour for a while. For the next 10 weeks, Zhang will be gearing up for a mid-March restart to her LPGA season while taking a full load of classes at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.
When Zhang turned professional after two historic collegiate seasons for the Cardinal, she made a commitment to finishing her degree in communications, much like her role model and close confidante, Michelle Wie West.
This week, Zhang made it clear just how dedicated she is to honoring that goal. Before Wednesday’s early morning pro-am, she had a rather late night scrambling to finish a statistics problem set.
“I’m taking a stats class, so I had to finish last night at around 12:30. This morning was a very early pro-am time, so I didn’t have too much time to rest,” Zhang said.
Any college golfer will tell you that a half-past midnight bedtime is light work—try taking an online exam before a Sunday afternoon tee time. Balancing a Stanford education and being the No. 24 ranked female golfer in the world is a serious challenge, but one that Zhang is more than equipped to manage. Exhibit A: During Thursday’s opening round, Zhang posted a 3-under 69, which put her in a tie for sixth place among a field of seasoned champions.
All in all, Zhang is excited about the breadth of disciplines she’s taking on this winter. In addition to statistics she’s enrolled in political science, media psychology and ironically, a journalism class. Speaking to a room that was likely full of legacy sports media reporters at Lake Nona Golf Course, Zhang explained the journalism curriculum that lies ahead of her.
“We’re supposed to create some beat memos where we’re trying to build a couple stories that we want to cover in these 10 weeks that I’m taking the class,” Zhang said. “I think I’m going to do something around Stanford athletics. Right now it’s all brainstorming, but getting started in terms of how to interview people and how to write good articles that people want to read objectively.”
Zhang might not know it, but she’s ahead of the game in that assignment. She’s had plenty of practice in seeing her own athletic storyline take form. In the offseason, Zhang made some serious adjustments to her 2024 plans and priorities after an important realization: She simply did too much in 2023. Although Zhang had an immensely successful first year on Tour—winning her LPGA debut and finishing top 10 in three of her four major starts—she just didn’t feel her best.
Some of what Zhang was experiencing was health-related. On Wednesday, the Southern California native revealed that recently started working with a nutritionist to cut out certain foods that might have been negatively impacting her performance. But overall, Zhang’s first year on Tour felt like a “rush,” and not in a good way.
“I think the biggest thing about last year, my little rookie season, was just to not pile so much on my plate,” Zhang said. “It’s been a lot that’s happened, and I feel like I continuously will have a lot that’s going to be happening. It’s almost like every single day, almost like I’m in a rush to complete a lot of things. Balancing everything and being able to handle all the attention as well.”
Then why go back to school? It turns out that Zhang’s Stanford education actually has the opposite effect on her. The on-campus rhythm and academic setting inspires Zhang, and she believes that taking a full course load this winter quarter could potentially do wonders for her game. And it doesn’t hurt that Zhang has full access to Stanford’s state-of-the-art practice facility, which is constantly buzzing with top-ranked players currently enrolled.
“Everyone is busy, no matter what you’re doing, everyone has their own schedules. You’re kind of just a fish in the sea where you can do whatever you want and you prioritize your own kind of needs and responsibilities,” Zhang said. “Some friends are doing start-ups already. Some people are entering the internship business and have already gotten into very top, top companies. So everyone in their own right is grinding, and it’s a really good environment for me to also do the same.”
So while her competitors are busy jetsetting to the LPGA’s three Asia-swing stops this winter, earning world ranking points and paychecks, Zhang will be commuting between the library and the Siebal practice range, getting a head start—her own way.
