U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

July 9, 2023

Rose Zhang

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Flash Interview

Q. Rose Zhang, even par-72. Can you talk us through the final round out there today.

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, started off a little bit shaky with a push out to the right on 1, but I felt like I still kept my pace, kept my momentum, and continued the round, tried to do my best. I felt like I played pretty solid out there.

But I wish a couple putts would have dropped, but other than that, very proud of how I stood my ground, and even though I wasn't playing the greatest and even though I wasn't making putts, I still felt like it was a pretty solid round.

Q. You probably came up just short of your ultimate goal, but what are you going to take away from this week?

ROSE ZHANG: I'm just lucky to be in contention and just play at a U.S. Open golf course. Pebble has been absolutely incredible, and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

It's been really memorable. I had so many fans and fun family friends out there. Had a lot of good times with the crowd. I'm just really living in every moment.

Q. What will you remember about this historic week at Pebble Beach?

ROSE ZHANG: There's too many things, but this entire week has just been so memorable. I would say just looking out on every single hole and just seeing how beautiful the views are and how incredible the people are, crowds, it's just everything collectively really brings all the memories together.

Q. Just thinking about everything that's gone on this week, having family, friends out here, this being the place of one of your greatest feats yet, does it feel like a full-circle moment in some ways as you progress through the rest of your professional career?

ROSE ZHANG: 100 percent. The Carmel Cup was basically my first collegiate event in my sophomore year. It's really crazy how fast forward a year later, I'm here at Pebble playing the U.S. Open as a professional.

The change in status is certainly something different.

It's just so memorable, just being in California. I feel like this is the first time I've really played in California and had such amazing family, friends and great crowds cheering for me. My own family, like all of them were out here, including my brother and my mom, and that's certainly something memorable, as well.

I think, yeah, full circle, 100 percent.

Q. Was this some of the most pressure you ever felt in your career?

ROSE ZHANG: Somewhat, but at the same time, honestly, everything is a blur, so I have no idea how much pressure I've really been given. It's usually myself giving my higher expectations towards my own skill set and just work, prep work in general.

I will say that this is one of the high intense pressure atmospheres that I've been in, but not the most pressuring.

Q. What do the days following look like? What are the type of things you're going to be working on?

ROSE ZHANG: Well, I'm leaving to Toledo tomorrow, so I'll be playing the LPGA event there. I'm going to try to figure out my putting a little bit more, try to figure out my irons, my approaches. I feel like that's where I really fell short this week.

From then on, I want to keep my head high and make sure that I have the confidence to just keep playing as I do.

Q. I wanted to talk about your mindset entering the round and what it was like playing with Lee today?

ROSE ZHANG: Mindset going into the round was pretty steady. I knew I had to be somewhat aggressive, but like I mentioned before, being aggressive at Pebble means hitting greens and just trying to convert putts from everywhere. Fortunately that's not really what I did in terms of putting, and I did make a couple errors when it came to short approach shots. A little mishap on the last hole.

But I think overall it was a very solid game plan. I did what I needed to do to just keep the ball in play and somewhat try to stay in contention.

Playing with Minjee, she's one of the players that I've always watched growing up. She's so solid left and right, just from tee to green. I've never seen such a solid player.

I've seen playing with her as an amateur before just once at Evian. But the impact that she had on me with her game and her poise is certainly something that I remember, and still to this day I admire a lot.

Playing with her today was really incredible, and I really enjoyed every moment.