THE ANNIKA DRIVEN BY GAINBRIDGE AT PELICAN

November 15, 2024

Rose Zhang

Pelican Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Rose Zhang after her second round at Pelican Golf Club. Good round for you today. Now you've jumped up the leaderboard. Can you just tell me about the day?

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah. I feel like the day played pretty difficult in general. We start out with some winds in the morning, and just throughout the day it was pretty consistent.

I felt that the golf course has been playing pretty lengthy, and the greens have also been pretty quick. Just being mindful of where you are at all times, staying present really makes a big difference.

That's what I tried to do today, every shot one at a time. I made a couple mistakes, but that's kind of something that is bound to happen. You have to prepare yourself for that.

So that's what I just tried to do, stick in there.

Q. How would you sum up the year so far?

ROSE ZHANG: The year, it's been -- there is just so much that's happened. I would almost argue in this year was just as much of a rollercoaster as last year for me. There is a lot of new challenges I faced, old recurring things that I've been trying to figure out.

So I think it's been going good. I feel like I grinded a lot this year. There is a lot of good showings and I'm really excited for my potential to get better.

But I think there is a lot of room to work with.

Q. What's been the biggest lesson of the year?

ROSE ZHANG: The biggest lesson, it's still all about balance, prioritizing your practice, making sure you have a routine and learning what that routine is. That's something that I have been still trying to figure out, a little bit struggling with.

I think that's probably the biggest difference between just amateur golf and professional golf in general.

Q. Game-wise when you look where you are right now, how do you feel about your game and where it's at?

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, I think my game is really solid. I feel like I have the ability to just grind it out. There is a couple things that I do need to work on. I feel like there is a lot of the loose threads throughout my golf game from the swing to the short game to the putting.

So I'm probably just going to work on that just for a little bit, and we'll see how everything fares out.

Q. How much of the commotion Wednesday around Caitlin Clark were you able to witness?

ROSE ZHANG: I witnessed the Caitlin Clark Effect, that's for sure. I was able to talk to her a little bit right before she left actually. She's just such an incredible role model for young players both on the basketball court and also on the golf course.

We as professional golfers are constantly inspired by her presence, her ability to just make things fun and make a lot of the people watch women's sports.

So the fact that she came here and there was more people in a pro-am than an actual golf tournament says a lot.

Q. You two of basically the same age. Were in college together. You two have gone through the same things learning how to process expectations placed on you at young age. What have you learned about that?

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, I've taken a lot of inspiration from her. I think she has a lot of -- her ability to just block out things and with everything that's happening in the WNBA, surrounding her, she's able to handle it so well.

I've been able to DM with her a couple times, and she's just a normal person. She's very down to earth. She has this star vibe to her, but I would say overall, everything that she does, it's dialed to the core.

She looks like she's having fun and that's something that I've taken a lot of inspiration from.

Q. Think you have a star vibe around you?

ROSE ZHANG: Sorry.

Q. Do you think you have a star vibe around you? I know it's hard to answer about yourself.

ROSE ZHANG: I don't think I'm the best judge for that.

Q. I do.

ROSE ZHANG: Aww.