Rose Zhang falls just short of miraculous victory at KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Rose Zhang gave it a strong shot at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship but did not win her first major as a professional golfer. She went 70-74-68-67 in her first major, finishing 5-under par. That resulted in a T8 finish for the 20-year-old.

Zhang battled, going out in 31 strokes, but two costly bogeys down the stretch ultimately kept her from taking home another trophy.

She would have become the first man or woman to ever win their first two tournaments as a professional. Zhang previously won her pro debut at the Mizuho Americas Open three weeks ago.

After an unfortunate weather delay, Zhang made a birdie on the par-4 11th to get to 5-under on the round and 6-under in the tournament. That pulled her within one shot of the lead, a place she would find herself numerous times on Sunday.

She made a bogey on the 13th but showed some moxy with a bounce back birdie at 14.

Her tee shot on the par-3 16th went left into the bunker. She was unable to get up and down and dropped another shot, proving to be too much to overcome.

Zhang tried to stay aggressive but couldn’t capitalize on the back-to-back par-5s to close the round. She made a par on the 17th after having a birdie putt lip out of the hole.

On the 18th, her tee ball bounced into the water,. She managed to save par to close out her round. Afterward, she talked about her round.

“Today was the best ball striking I felt the last couple of days. I wanted to take as much advantage of that,” she said.

She acknowledged a couple things that could have been cleaner, and had the most amazing reaction to it.

“I wish a couple more putts could have dropped... but, you know, it’s all good,” Zhang said with a smile. We all better get used to hearing her name. She isn’t going anywhere.