Rose Zhang Is Changing The Narrative Around Pro Golfers In College

Rose Zhang first picked up a golf club when she was 9 years old. She was playing with her dad in their backyard in Irvine, California, and he handed her a putter from a standard adult men’s golfing set. “I think that thing weighed and was longer than me at the time,” Zhang says, calling in on Zoom from the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Santa Monica. “I could still get the ball up in the air, and that’s the first goal you want to have in the sport.” She had a knack for hitting the bottle caps he set out for her, so they soon made the trip to Roger Dunn Golf Shop to buy a set of kids' clubs she could practice with.

Thirteen years later, it’s safe to say that purchase paid off in spades. Zhang spent three years as the No. 1 women’s amateur golf player in the world, starting in 2020. She’s since won her professional debut while working toward her communications degree at Stanford (where she was also on the golf team during her freshman and sophomore seasons). She’ll graduate this spring, a “lifelong goal” that the 22-year-old has fought hard to achieve while balancing her dedication to her sport. “It’s a very contested opinion to be able to do those things simultaneously, and I’m really excited to see light at the end of the tunnel,” Zhang says.

A lot of naysayers would be like, ‘If she goes to college, her career as a golfer is just gone.’

Though the Red Bull sponsored athlete is an undeniable powerhouse, she’s never seen herself as being better than her competition. “I just go after it, and regardless of the results, I think about trying to get better,” Zhang says. At first, practicing her golf swing in the backyard, she started by setting tiny goals for herself. “I was like, ‘Wow, I want to try to make the golf ball fly higher,’ and I gave myself challenges to do that.” Within a few months of getting those kids clubs, she was competing in (and winning) local tournaments in Southern California, and she moved up to the 12 to 14 age division at age 11.

“I had a very gradual progression,” Zhang says. “I didn’t even think about college or anything of that sort.” She credits her parents with teaching her the discipline to improve on her own accord. “They had me compartmentalize the way that I did things, so they never compared me to other players, as crazy as that sounds.”

When her amateur career took off near the end of high school, Zhang began to see potential for golf to become a legitimate profession. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the first time in 2020, after competing with a wrist injury. “My coaches were not happy with me when I decided to play that event. Then I turned out and won the whole thing,” she says. “I definitely got a lot of confidence in my game to continue playing.” That victory kicked off her record-breaking streak as world No. 1, a title she held until going pro in 2023. “It’s honestly pretty crazy,” Zhang says of that accomplishment. “If you told me that when I just started playing, it would not be a forefront thought.”

After reaching the top rungs of amateur golf, Zhang could have easily transitioned into playing professionally full time. Instead, she decided to go to college — a decision that ruffled feathers among some folks in her orbit. “The younger you are, the more opportunity you have, and the more lifespan you have as an athlete,” she says. “A lot of naysayers would be like, ‘If she goes to college, her career as a golfer is just gone.’ There was a bit of feeling like ‘I want to prove you wrong.’”

That was the main aha moment of realizing I was going to turn pro and still come back to school.

True to her word, Zhang dominated college golf during her freshman and sophomore years, becoming the first woman to win the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship twice. She felt ready for the pro level, but she was mindful of the risks — including the finances involved with playing a sport that doesn’t get much national media attention. “The LPGA is a great platform, but it hasn’t really lifted off as well as women’s tennis, for example,” she says. “So if you’re outside of the top 50, you’re paying out of pocket for everything.” Zhang also didn’t want to drop out of school and give up the learning opportunities she had access to at Stanford.

So she called up Michelle Wie West, a fellow women’s golfer who played professionally while getting a Stanford education. “She was like, ‘I played professionally and finished my degree. I don’t see why you can’t,’” Zhang says of their conversation. “That was the main aha moment of realizing I was going to turn pro and still come back to school.” She made the switch and went on to win her pro debut at the Mizuho Americas Open in 2023, becoming the first player in 72 years to do so.

Zhang will finish her Stanford communications degree in just one extra year, after alternating her semesters with the golf season to accommodate both things at once. She admits it’s been a challenge at times. “I think the body and the mind need a little bit of a reset, which did not really happen for me. That overwhelmingness is much more difficult than you can really let on,” she says.

To balance her hectic life, she relies on building in time for herself to journal, read, and relax. “If you don’t allot a little bit of quiet time in your day, you’re going to burn out so much quicker. I almost think of that quiet time as training,” she says. “When you don’t have that period, you don’t really reset, and it’s easy to get blinded by everything that you’re doing.” Her best advice for younger athletes is to be intentional about their self-care practices, schedule, and support system. “I encourage you to have fun with living your life, but be aware of what you’re doing.”

Once she takes a breather postgraduation, Zhang has her eye on more professional titles in 2026. She played the Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Florida, in December and is set to play the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1. Zhang also has plans to be more active on social media, sharing her life with her Instagram followers. “My goal is not to in any way do anything self-glorifying,” she says. “I just want to be a little bit more relatable for anyone who’s willing to listen or willing to watch.”