PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | They stood seven rows deep and parked themselves early. The crowd, one of the largest anyone could remember, wasn’t for the group that included a major champion, Jennifer Kupcho, a former Rolex Rankings No.1, Atthaya Thitikul, and the hottest European on the LPGA Tour, Leona Maguire. A smattering of applause followed that threesome’s opening tee shots, but not a soul moved down the fairway. They’d gotten there early and there they would stay. No one abandoned their vantage point around the first tee at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
“When is she coming?” a young girl on the viewing platform asked her parents. The tone was the same as “Are we there yet?” and the parental response was, likewise, familiar. “In a minute, honey,” the mom said.
At that moment, the headliner arrived. “There she is,” the girl said, pointing at LPGA Tour rookie Rose Zhang.
A buzz rippled through the crowd. Then someone yelled, “Go Rose,” which brought a round of cheers. It was a strange development given that Zhang was playing with two of most popular players in the game – Brooke Henderson and Lydia Ko, who have four major championships and 32 LPGA Tour wins between them. The fact that this was a Rose crowd surprised a few people.
“This might be the biggest LPGA gallery I’ve ever seen,” said Kevin Hopkins, who is Zhang’s agent, but who has also been a staple on the LPGA Tour for over a decade.
Anyone who attended the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach remembers an opening-round crowd of similar size. That one was for Tiger Woods.
The quality was also impressive. Dr. Condoleezza Rice was out there. So was LPGA Hall of Famer Betsy King. When asked if she could remember a gallery like that for a rookie, King thought for a moment and said, “Nancy Lopez, but that’s it.”
Lopez was a rookie in 1978, 45 years ago.
Some of the fervor this week can be attributed to Stanford University, just 90 miles north of Pebble Beach. Zhang has been a star in this part of California since she arrived on the Palo Alto campus two years ago. There were plenty of Stanford hats in the gallery. But that doesn’t explain the same kind of reaction she got in New Jersey two weeks ago when Zhang made her first major start as a pro. That week the “Rose” chants started early and echoed throughout the weekend.
On Thursday, they started anew.
As smart as Zhang is, her innocence is still on display. When talking to her Stanford coach Anne Walker, Zhang said, “I didn’t realize so many people came out to watch women’s golf.”
Walker responded, “They don’t, Rose. They’re here to see you.”
This week, at a course where Zhang holds the women’s course record – a 63 she shot last fall in a college event – the pressure is greater than anything she has experienced so far in her brief professional career. And it showed. After a couple of early birdies – when the one on No. 4 went in from 14.5 feet, you could have heard the roar in Monterey – Zhang had a few miscues. She bogeyed the tough par-3 fifth after pushing a 6-iron into the bunker. Then, after a bounce-back birdie at the seventh, she made a mess of the difficult par-4 eighth, flirting perilously with the cliff and then pushing her second shot into the penalty area near the beach. It resulted in a double bogey and took a little air out of the crowd.
Her normal precision seemed off, and she appeared to be fighting her swing, getting a little late with her hands through impact. What kept her in touch was near-perfect speed with the putter. Even the putts she didn’t make were struck the right speed.
She finished the day at 2-over par, which is a testament to absolutely nothing. For perspective, Zhang beat 16 major champions on Thursday.
“It was a bit of a struggle out there,” Zhang said after her round. “I felt like the game in general was pretty solid. It was just the mishap on 8 that kind of turned my entire round a little bit. But I felt like I was just trying to grind out there. Trying to get some numbers in. Hopefully tomorrow I can just have a good days' rest and then play well in the morning.”
No one should look at this round, or even this week, with Rose-colored glasses. Golf is hard. And careers, done right, are long. How she finishes changes none of that.
She’s still a 20-year-old, a charismatic, charming, talented kid with the potential to lift the women’s game. She’s also a star in the making – so long as our expectations don’t screw it up.
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