Las Vegas golfer relishes chance to win Olympic gold

Playing in the Paris Olympics was the furthest thing from Rose Zhang’s mind when spring arrived. She had bigger concerns at the time.

Zhang was still trying to figure out life on the LPGA Tour, which she joined the previous summer, was continuing to work on her degree at Stanford and was settling into her new home in Summerlin.

Then May rolled around, and Zhang won the Cognizant Founders Cup in Clifton, New Jersey, for her second LPGA victory. The victory vaulted Zhang into the top 10 in the Rolex World Rankings and locked up her spot on the U.S. Olympic team, where she will join world No. 1 Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu, last year’s player of the year.

“It was definitely after Jersey where it did click a little bit more,” Zhang said of making the team. “I almost didn’t really want to think about it too much because there just was a lot of golf left to be played early in the season. If I was to only focus on making the Olympics, it would have been a little bit more difficult to play shot by shot, green by green when I’m out there competing.”

But she’s been thinking about it since.

“I’m super excited. It’s honestly something that I never really expected to happen this quick,” said Zhang, who turned 21 in May. “I just think that I was so whooped up on just being able to play week in, week out on tour against the best in the world, and to be able to compete against the best while representing your own country is honestly such a great honor in itself. It’s what every single athlete dreams of.”

Playing on a big stage in Paris will be nothing new for Zhang, who had the best amateur career of any woman in recent history. Wins came at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, Augusta National Women’s Amateur and twice at the NCAA Championships, among many others. She was the top-ranked amateur in the world for three consecutive years, won 12 of 20 tournaments at Stanford and set the NCAA record for the lowest career stroke average.

Success continued immediately when she turned pro last summer. Zhang won her first start on the LPGA Tour, vaulting her onto the 2023 Solheim Cup team.

Veteran Stacy Lewis, who was captain of the Solheim Cup team, believes Zhang is much more comfortable now than during that competition.

“I really didn’t expect a whole lot out of her at Solheim, so I think she’s going to be a lot more ready for this Olympics,” Lewis said. “She’s tailored her schedule a little bit more for it to be a little bit more prepared. She’s a great player. I expect her to go have a good week.”

Zhang is looking forward to the full Olympic experience as much as the actual competition.

“I’m going to savor it, for sure. I plan on hanging around the Olympic Village,” she said. “I played the Pan American Games (in 2019), and just being with so many different athletes, seeing everyone doing their own thing, coming in with the medals that they won, it was a really special experience. I’m sure the Olympics will definitely top that.”

Zhang won’t be the only Las Vegas golfer in Paris. On the men’s side, Collin Morikawa and former resident Xander Schauffele are back for their second Olympics. Schauffele is the defending gold medalist, and Morikawa lost a seven-player playoff for the bronze medal to C.T. Pan of Chinese Tapei.

Zhang will have plenty of support from her fellow players when she tees it up at Le Golf National in Saint-Quintin-en-Yvelines.

“I’m so proud of her,” said Alexa Pano, one of Zhang’s best friends who has played with and against her since junior golf. “To be able to do that in the short amount of time that she’s been on tour is insane and obviously very inspiring to me, getting to watch her accomplish all these amazing things.”

The 60-player field is teeming with talent, starting with Korda, the defending gold medalist. The French crowd will be rooting for Celine Boutier, while other big names such as Australia’s Hannah Green and Minjee Lee, Britain’s Georgia Hall and Charlie Hull, Canada’s Brooke Henderson, South Korea’s Jin Young Ko and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko are among the top contenders.

Lewis wouldn’t be shocked to see Zhang sporting the gold medal at the end of the competition.

“She’s extremely talented,” Lewis said. “I don’t think we’ve even seen the best of Rose’s golf yet.”

Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.