‘It was a black-out moment!’ Rose Zhang recalls her Solheim Cup debut

If Rose Zhang had sat down at the start of 2023 and written down what the next 12 months would look like, not even the most creative novelists could have come up with how it ended up panning out.

If you didn’t already know anything about this brilliant teenager tearing up the unpaid ranks, you certainly did by the time she had announced herself to the world with victory at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

The following month, on the day she turned 20, Zhang lifted the NCAA Championship for the second consecutive year to become the first female player to win it twice. Two days later, she announced her intention to turn pro, ending a record-breaking streak as the world’s top-ranked amateur at 142 weeks. But this was just the start of something special.

Just a few days passed when, Zhang, with the eyes of the world on her, saw off Jennifer Kupcho in a playoff at the Mizuho Americas Open to become the first LPGA player to win on her professional debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951.

Three of Zhang’s next four starts were major championships, and top tens in each rocketed her into the world’s top-30 and, with it, a guaranteed Solheim Cup debut. Something that, she said at the time, was “certainly not one of my goals”.

But life comes at you fast, so bunkered sat down with the rising star to find out all about her debut at Finca Cortesin…

You said the 2023 Solheim Cup wasn’t in your plans, so to play in it just four months after turning pro must have been beyond your wildest dreams?

Yes, it was! I played in the 2017 and 2019 Junior Solheim Cups, at Des Moines and Gleneagles, so being able to participate with the US team and represent my country at that age was amazing, but I was also able to interact with a lot of the Solheim Cup members in both events and that just made me realise how fun it is, and how exciting it is, especially being on that big stage representing the red, white and blue.

It was something I was thinking about, and had always been a huge goal of mine, when I wanted to turn pro. It just happened so fast.

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How was it when you turned up at Finca and suddenly you’re in a team room with the likes of Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang?

Honestly, it was a nerve-wracking experience!

I was newly-turned pro and I did not know anything, outside the ropes, of the team. These are the people that I’ve watched on TV my whole life. I knew a couple of the members from way before in amateur golf – Andrea Lee, being alumni at Stanford, is one of my great friends, and Allisen Corpuz and I played in the Curtis Cup together. Apart from that, I didn’t really have too much interaction with the rest prior to the event itself.

But Megan Khang was super open with me, and she took me under her wing a little bit. Ali Ewing almost felt like a mum for the entire team, she had such a good energy. And we had so much camaraderie, even though we had five rookies on the team.

So it was honestly a great experience to really get to know people who I’d watched growing up, but at the same time we’re now teammates.

When your Solheim Cup career got underway, you and Megan Khang shared the points with Gemma Dryburgh and Madelene Sagstrom. How did that feel?

It took some of the pressure off, just because I knew then that I wasn’t going back home pointless!

Honestly, it felt great. It was just such a cool experience to be able to play match play, especially when you don’t play a lot of it in the professional ranks. I enjoyed my time with Megan, and we played against incredible opponents, but we made some really clutch putts and hit some really great golf shots that ultimately led to a half.

Half-points are everything when it comes to a Solheim Cup. No point goes left unnoticed.

One such putt was your ten-footer at 16 to halve the hole after Gemma had chipped in. You seemed like the calmest player on the course. How do you keep yourself in the zone in a moment like that?

Honestly, I only thought about full-sending that putter!

You’ve got to get it to the hole, first of all, otherwise you’ve basically lost your entire battle there. I’d say it’s super interesting, because, especially in high-pressure moments like that, it was almost an all-or-nothing situation. So, you kind of tap-in to this part of you that really grinds through, pushes through, and you don’t really think about the consequences of what the aftermath in your putting or your shots are.

It was almost a black-out moment just because she chipped in, we’re on European soil, the crowds are going wild, and it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. Even lining up the putts, people were just yelling, and it was just such a good moment.

But at the same time, I knew that, at that moment, if I didn’t lock in, then it wouldn’t be ideal. So, inevitably, I just think about being present, composed, setting up, and committing. That was my only thoughts during that time.

And on the second day you got to play with your good friend Andrea Lee…

Oh, I was so excited to be paired up with my pal! Andrea has always been such a big sister to me.

Even before I was at Stanford, I played in the final of the US Women’s Amateur against Gabi Ruffels, who was at USC at the time, and Andrea called me “Little Stanford”. So, we’ve always had a bond, and being able to be on tour with her, see what she’s done, and now become Solheim Cup partners, was pretty exciting.

I’d say I was not expecting us to be on that team that year – mainly because I wasn’t expecting myself to be on the team in the first place – but being with her provided a lot of comfort, because we were both rookies, too.

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Looking ahead to September and your second Solheim Cup – how will you prepare differently, if at all?

No, the preparation will be the same.

My only thing is, when you’re playing matchplay, sometimes you play your best game but things don’t go your way, whereas sometimes you just need to grind out and you come out on top.

Match play is so unpredictable, so there’s no expectations. I’m going to put as many points as I can on the board, but you also can’t force it to where you put too much pressure on that score. In match play, you have to be present on every single shot because, even if you’re up three with four to go, you can lose. And that’s when closing out matches becomes so much more crucial.

Do you see yourself taking on a mentorship role with any rookies making the team?

Oh, no! I would argue I still feel like a rookie! I think there’s a lot of experienced people on the team. We’ve got Stacy [Lewis], our captain, and there’s going to be a lot of veterans who have played multiple Solheim Cups together. So being able to still continue to learn from them is something I’m looking forward to.

Finally, the start of your Solheim Cup career has coincided with a mini period of dominance for Europe. Are you confident of winning that trophy back?

Yes! Our team this year is going to be even stronger.

This interview first appeared in issue 214 of bunkered magazine.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor