CPKC WOMEN'S OPEN

July 24, 2024

Rose Zhang

Earl Grey Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, welcome to the media center at the CPKC Women's Open.

I'm joined by Rose Zhang. Welcome, Rose. We'll just kick things off by starting. Rose, you played here last year for the first time; second time this year. What do you think about this event and how excited are you for the week?

ROSE ZHANG: I'm super excited for the week. I had really good memories from last year in Vancouver. The crowds were incredible and just the entire venue setup was one of the best on tour.

So I hear a lot of hype even from when I was an amateur before coming here, and safe to say that event does really well for all the players and everyone who is just competing, hanging out, et cetera.

Q. That brings me to the next question. 50th anniversary of this event. What has it event meant to you and also we talked to Lydia earlier about watching her win. What kind of memories do you have of this event growing up not participating in it?

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, I was still a very itty bitty junior player when Brooke Henderson won that incredible win in front of her home crowds.

Even though I wasn't intending on playing anything super competitive at the time, I saw that and it was very inspiring to see someone who's so young and just coming out here and winning in the fashion she did.

So that was definitely a super fond memory that I've had. And just the legacy that this entire event has brought to the tour is simply incredible.

I've heard about it, like I said, from before, from all the players. This is one stop that everyone just really enjoys.

Q. As well with the tournament there is several initiatives they have going on throughout the week. The Audi Precision Award is a new thing this week. Presenting the top player with the most greens in regulation a check at the end of the week. Not sure if knew about that or not?

ROSE ZHANG: I did not.

Q. How important is that to see as a player?

ROSE ZHANG: It's super cool. Obviously week in, week out we try to play our best game. Sometimes when things don't shape up too well, on the putting greens being initiatives like that just gives every player that little boost of confidence.

I think it's really incredible just to have those little prizes along the way. It encourages players and makes it fun.

But, yeah, that's super cool to hear about.

Q. How do you feel like you've been able to compartmentalize things into your second year of being a professional golfer? This is your job now. How do you feel things have gone this year and lessons learned over the last 12 months or so?

ROSE ZHANG: 100%. I honestly felt like I learned a lot more this year than last year. Not because of circumstances that I was put under. Not comparing the two.

But more so just last year felt like a lot of adrenaline. There was a lot happening. I was kind of just flying by not realizing what's happening. This year things have settled in.

I went back to school and coming out here again, just knowing that oh, wow this is a job and kind of navigating myself around once again, it's been really inspiring for myself.

A lot of learning curves happening. Just I think I would almost say that this feels a lot more like a rookie season than last year. Just because there were a lot of the events that I've never played before.

Yeah, that in its own self and in its own right just makes the difference.

Q. What are your thoughts after playing maybe today and then yesterday? What are your thoughts on the course here?

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, thoughts on the course, it's playing pretty difficult and I would say the golf ball is going a little further. I'm sure everyone has noticed with the elevation change.

The rough is thicker. Once you land on the greens it rolls out. So it'll play very difficult for everyone out here. But it's really nice. The conditions are great, so it'll be a really good test, really good fight for all the players out there.

Q. Is there any course, since it's just first time playing here I'm assuming, any course you would compare this to that you have seen before maybe?

ROSE ZHANG: It does. I would say Vancouver last year, it does have similar I guess aspects, similar characteristics.

Fairways are pretty tight and there is a couple -- I mean, it's a little bit more tree-lined. Not too much. Not as much as other courses we've played. Cognizant is very tree-lined but has similar characteristics with the tight fairways and thick rough.

Other than that, I think that's probably about it.

Q. There was a tour truck here this week for you guys, something that this tournament doesn't usually get a lot of the access to because of the border issues. What's it like having a tour truck on site and how valuable is something like that for you guys?

ROSE ZHANG: It's extremely valuable for all the players, especially this week. There has been a lot of travel issues. My driver on its own broke in travel, so once I brought it out it snapped at the neck and I had to get it fixed with the tour truck.

So very blessed that the tour truck was there. So I think that's the beauty of professional golf, is you get access to all these incredible, the latest technology, and it allows us to play our best and despite border control and all that. It's really great to have the equipment companies come up and really enable the players to kind of exchange equipment, find something that really suits them for the week.

Q. Halfway through the season, what are you looking forward to most? You have the Olympics on horizon here. After seeing some posts on social, what are you looking forward to there most?

ROSE ZHANG: I'm looking forward to just competing for Team USA. I think on its own, I have watched the Olympics and I've watched the honor that all the athletes have competing for their nation.

They also just love cheering on their own teammates and other sports, and I think that's going to be such a cool experience. I don't think it's something that I will really kind of have sink in until I'm actually there or maybe even afterwards.

So I'm really looking forward to kind of shaping up my game and preparing to fight.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much for your time.

ROSE ZHANG: Thank you.