Rose Zhang has surpassed the number of wins Tiger Woods achieved as a Stanford University golfer. The 19-year-old did so after becoming the first women’s player to win two NCAA individual titles following victory in the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship.
Zhang claimed a one-shot win over the University of Southern California’s Catherine Park at Grayhawk despite starting her round four shots adrift of the lead. That was enough to see her surpass the record number of individual titles as a Stanford University golfer, moving her onto 12, one more than Patrick Rodgers, Maverick McNealy and 15-time Major winner Tiger Woods.
🚨🏌🏼♀️BACK TO BACK CHAMP — Rose Zhang makes history! She’s the first player to win 2 Women’s Individual NCAA Championships. pic.twitter.com/XiO1vrVdZ8May 23, 2023
Zhang’s status as one of the game’s rising stars was further cemented as the win also saw her tie the record for most NCAA victories in a season with eight, moving her alongside one of the best female golfers of all time, Lorena Ochoa, who went on to claim 27 LPGA Tour wins, including two Majors.
Following her latest victory, the American seemed almost lost for words. She told the Golf Channel: “It's hard to process because when you're chasing from behind, you really don't know what is happening until everything's completed, until everything's done. I genuinely just – I can't believe this is all happening, and it's just, it's just simple to say that I'm super grateful.”
Zhang also admitted that she had been unsure of her standing on the leaderboard with one hole to play. Beginning the 72nd hole one shot ahead, she had planned to take on the par 5 18th in two shots to the green until her home Anne Walker explained the situation.
She said: “I didn’t even know what was going on. When I was walking down 18 and started to drive, coach was like: ‘You should lay up,' and I was confused. I had 198 out and I really had the ‘I need to go for it’ mentality. And she was like: ‘No, you’ve got a one-stroke lead.’ So I was like: 'Oh, maybe I’ll second guess everything that I just thought in that moment.' I can’t believe this happened.”
The victory continues a memorable year for the World No.1 women’s amateur after she also won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in a dramatic playoff over Jenny Bae last month.
Among her other achievements, Zhang competed in the US Women's Open in 2019 aged 16. The year after, she claimed her best finish in a Major to date with a tie for 11th in the Chevron Championship. The same year, she won the US Women's Amateur.
