Second Wave of the Young Guns Ready for Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | The last two LPGA Tour winners have been 20 years old. Both occupy a short list of favorites as they best prepare for history.

With a marine layer (what the rest of the world calls fog) hanging over Pebble Beach Golf Links on Tuesday, Rose Zhang, winner of the Mizuho Americas Open, and Ruoning “Ronnie” Yin, who captured the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, worked through another day of practice before the first shots of the U.S. Women’s Open. They also fielded questions and finagled their way through photographers and media requests.

Rose ran the gauntlet, sitting at the “Live From” desk on Golf Channel with Brandel Chamblee and Paige Mackenzie before doing a couple of on-camera interviews and an official press conference. Then she went out for a tune-up round with Michelle Wie West and Marina Alex. On the fourth tee, Beth Daniel introduced her to soccer star Mia Hamm. “Wow, it’s so wonderful to meet you,” Rose said. “I’m a huge fan.” In point of fact, Hamm retired when Rose was one year old. But who’s counting? The 20-year-old oozes star power with a thoughtful maturity and the kind of charisma rarely found north of Hollywood.

Ronnie is no slouch, either. Even with English as a second language, the latest major champion delivers cool quips with a broad smile.

When asked about the only other time she’s played Pebble Beach, which was back when she was an 11-year-old, Ronnie said, “It was a camp, like a golf camp. The only thing I remember is the (shortest) par-3, No. 7. I remember that it was pretty windy, and I got my 3-wood, and it was too short, just probably like 130 shot, and the pin was back left, the classic one. Yeah, into the wind, 3-wood. It was short.”

Yin can be serious, and on Thursday, everyone else will take her seriously. When she won at Baltusrol, she hit 37 consecutive greens in regulation from the last hole played on Friday throughout the entire weekend, an astonishing major-championship feat.

Now she says, “I definitely want to win some more. I think, for me, I feel like I'm in a pretty good spot right now. My game is quite on spot and my mental is pretty strong. Yeah, I'm looking forward to winning more.”

So is Rose, although she won’t go so far as to predict an outcome. The newly-minted LPGA Tour rookie, who has only made two professional starts, earned one win and a tie for eighth in that span.

“I would have never expected myself to be in this position,” she said. “Just being able to be in contention has been incredible. I feel like my game has been on par with a lot of the professionals and the veterans out here. 

“I have never really thought about, results-wise, how I would end up. But I assumed that the transition was going to be a lot more difficult for sure.”

Rose holds the women’s course record at Pebble Beach, a 63 that she shot last fall during a collegiate event that she won.

“That 63 came as a blur,” she said. “It was the second round, and I was preparing myself to just be able to hit fairways and greens because that's what you have to do here.

“The greens are tiny, and one of the caddies in our group actually kept all my stats for the round, and I apparently hit 18 greens. It was a little bit windy that day. It really does help when you are out here and being able to hit greens and giving yourself a lot of good birdie opportunities.

“That's basically what I did. I was able to shoot a low number. I was making a lot of great putts. Yeah, it was just a pretty dreamy week.”

Before the two went out for their practice round, Wie West said of Rose, “She's incredibly poised and has that inner confidence, that inner silent confidence in her that is just so incredible, and she is a real competitor. 

“I'm super excited for all the things that she's already accomplished in her few weeks as pro, and very excited to see what's in the future for her.

“I think that Rose being an NIL athlete, in my opinion helped that transition. I feel like I was kind of thrown into it all at once, but I was also fortunate that social media was not a thing when I was 14 and there was no world of TikTok.

“It's a different world now. With NIL, I feel like with her doing her own social media thing, I feel like it's kind of easing the transition from what I can see.”

Lydia Ko was also a teenaged phenom, the youngest player, man or woman, ever to be No.1 in the world. Like Rose and Ronnie, Lydia was also a media darling, saying all the right things while exuding a charm and innocence she didn’t realize she had.

“They're playing better than me right now, so I don't know if they need my advice,” Ko said with a laugh of the two 20-year-olds. “They've done pretty well. How Ronnie finished at KPMG a couple weeks ago was very impressive, and Rose -- I think there were a lot of expectations for her when she made her pro debut -- but she just focused on her game and played like a superstar.

“She holds the women's course record here, so wouldn't be surprised if she has another good week.”

No one would be surprised if Rose or Ronnie were near the top on Sunday. It’s the second wave of the young guns. And they have everyone’s attention.