Rose Zhang moved up 11 spots without hitting a single shot in the U.S. Women’s Open
Rose Zhang has stormed onto the golf scene this year. The 20-year-old is now at the Pebble Beach Golf Links course making her debut at the 2023 US Women's Open and she has already impressed the crowd.
During her second round, Rose Zhang posted a score of 71, an improvement from her first round score of 74. At the end of the two rounds, she stood at +1, sitting tied for 22nd and comfortably ready to make the cut. However, that was just the beginning of Zhang's climb to the top.
Soon, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up rather harshly, causing scores to increase by the stroke. This meant that Zhang was climbing up the leaderboard without even hitting a shot. Other golfers dropped out of contention and, at the end of the second round, Rose Zhang stood tied for 11th.
Don’t try this at your local course ⚠️
Rose Zhang makes chipping off the green look easy!
#USWomensOpen https://t.co/ctyz3A3ABa
Zhang trails leader Bailey Tardy, who took the lead after starting in the first group on the back nine on Friday. Kim Hyo-joo, Leona Maguire and Ayaka Furue also remain in contention and near the top of the leaderboard going into the penultimate round.
Rose Zhang's impressive debut at the 2023 US Women's Open
Rose Zhang's second round at the US Open proved to be a lot better than her first. While she managed only three birdies on the second day, she avoided the disaster of a double bogey that she shot on the first day.
Speaking via Golf Digest, she said:
“I was able to hole a really, really good putt on 17 and that kind of shifted my momentum into the back nine. Felt very solid with my game in general. I knew that I had some errors yesterday that I wanted to prevent, so today I tried to work on those things and figure out how to play the course better.”
Of the 10 players that are ahead of Zhang, only Gee Chun and Hyo Joo Kim are previous major champion winners. After the conclusion of the second round, Zhang seemed excited to make the cut and hopefully finish at the top of the field this weekend.
“Really grateful that I was able to make the cut," said Zhang.