This week’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is the only opportunity fans will have to see Rose Zhang compete on the LPGA Tour until late March.

The 21-year-old is currently taking classes at Stanford University for the winter quarter, and even though she is the defending champion next week at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, Zhang isn’t scheduled to tee it up again until the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass that begins on March 27.

Zhang left college in 2023 after her sophomore year to join the professional golf ranks but still wanted to finish up her communications degree, spending the last couple of years taking classes here and there when she has time to spare throughout her busy life competing on the LPGA Tour. Zhang did something similar last season, playing in her first Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions after winning the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open and then breaking for school until the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship in March.

So, while skipping the spring Asian swing seems like it could be detrimental to her golf game, Zhang knows how to manage this type of lengthy break from tournament play and is more than ready to do so over the coming weeks.

“I really like how my schedule is playing out right now because I'm full-time, 22 units into winter quarter,” Zhang explained in her pre-tournament press conference. “But it's only 10 weeks. Actually, the week before Arizona would be my finals week, which is really nice because I'll get to finish everything that I need to and then prioritizing that, putting that to the side, and getting ready for the entire season. It's kind of like me tackling one thing at a time.”

Because of her schoolwork and a wrist injury that cropped up during the Solheim Cup, one that she played through from September until the CME Group Tour Championship, Zhang hasn’t been hitting the golf course as much as she would have liked to when preparing for her season debut. But Zhang’s 2-under 70 in the first round didn’t indicate that she was dealing with too much competitive rust and has her sitting in a tie for fourth early at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, a solid position in which to start.

Playing alongside Aaron Hicks and Jon Smoltz, Zhang quickly grabbed a birdie on the par-4 1st hole, making another on the par-3 6th hole to move to 2-under. She gave a shot back with a bogey on eight and then made another on 10 to slip back to even par with eight holes to play. Zhang birdied the par-4 14th hole and picked up back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 to move to 3-under, but she bogeyed the par-4 18th hole to post a 70 and join a logjam of players at 2-under, a day-one effort that she was overall pretty pleased with considering her limited prep.

“That was kind of an up-and-down round. I felt like I had a lot of positives coming out of it,” Zhang said. “Starting off 2025 with a birdie is always really nice. Kind of got into the groove of it. Towards the middle of the round, my swing got a little wonky. I had a couple of shots that were a little bit more poorly executed. But coming down the stretch, still very positive and very satisfied with how I kept myself in the moment throughout the round.”

With A Lim Kim very much out in front after opening with a 7-under 65, Zhang will have plenty of work to do over the next 54 holes if she wants to contend for the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions title come Sunday afternoon.

But even though she wants to win every time she tees it up in an LPGA Tour event, much like the rest of her counterparts do, Zhang is keeping her expectations measured this week, knowing that her performance at Lake Nona will be a good gauge for what she wants to work on over the next couple of months as she attends to her Stanford studies.

“My approach to this entire week is to get as prepared as possible, do the things that I need to do in terms of routine,” Zhang said. “Of course, I'm going to work hard this week. That's the goal for me, to be able to complete this week with no regrets and tell myself I'm going to be executing on every single shot.

“If things don't work out well for me, I have two months to really, really crack down on my mechanics and working with my coaches, my trainers to get myself in contention throughout the year. This is kind of, I wouldn't say checkpoint because I still am very competitive, but I will say that it allows me to work on the process going further down the road.”

Rose Zhang Showing Little Rust After Prioritizing Stanford Schoolwork During Off-Season

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