Rose Zhang makes her professional debut at this week’s LPGA Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National, and she’ll have a veteran caddie by her side.
Jason Gilroyed, who most recently worked for Minjee Lee for five seasons, will be part of Zhang’s team as she makes the transition from Stanford.
Zhang, 20, became the first woman to win back-to-back NCAA titles last week in Arizona. She won 12 times in 20 starts at Stanford, including eight wins this season. Tiger Woods once won eight times in a single season at Stanford.
Zhang’s 12 career college titles set a school record at Stanford, besting Woods (26 events), Patrick Rodgers (35 events) and Maverick McNealy (45 events) who all won 11 times. Zhang matched Lorena Ochoa for the most wins in Pac-12 history. She finished the season with a 68.81 scoring average over 31 rounds, nearly a stroke better than her 69.68 NCAA record from freshman season.
Zhang has exemptions into all four majors this summer, including the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. Gilroyed and his son Tyler, a student at SMU, recently visited with Zhang at Stanford. After a tour of campus and dinner, they went to Pebble Beach the next day for a practice round where Zhang teed it up with the director of golf.
“She shot 4 under pretty easily at 6 a.m. at Pebble when it was pretty cold,” said Gilroyed, who started caddying on the LPGA in 1996, working long stints with Rosie Jones, Cristie Kerr, Anna Nordqvist, Alison Lee and Minjee Lee.
The even-keeled Gilroyed has been on the bag for 26 LPGA wins, including four majors.
Last fall, Zhang set a new women’s course record at Pebble Beach when she shot 9-under 63 in the second round of the 2022 Carmel Cup.
“If I had to describe her game it would be more a Jin Young (Ko),” he said, “you know it’s going to be about precision.”
