Rose Zhang completes amateur grand slam with playoff win at 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rose Zhang has accomplished the ladies’s beginner grand slam.

The world’s No. 1 beginner didn’t have her greatest stuff on Saturday at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership however by some means discovered a method to maintain on for the win on the 2023 Augusta Nationwide Ladies’s Novice in a playoff over Georgia’s Jenny Bae.

Zhang entered the ultimate spherical with a commanding five-shot lead however struggled early and sometimes. Stanford’s star sophomore made double bogey on the primary gap and sprayed her method across the course earlier than signing for a 4-over-par 76.

“Having the ability to play competitively at Augusta Nationwide is actually totally different from every other venue that I’ve performed in. It’s humorous as a result of the final 4 instances that I performed right here, I keep in mind my scores being nowhere close to below par,” stated Zhang, one in every of three ANWA four-time members and the one one to make the lower in all 4 begins.

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“I actually, actually do love this golf course. Typically it’s simply attention-grabbing that I by no means actually get my A sport after I’m out right here. Once I was out at (Champions Retreat) it felt really easy to me. The whole lot simply got here to me. I used to be making putts. I used to be hitting greens. However whenever you’re out right here, one mistake, like I stated earlier than, is magnified.”

These struggles opened the door for Bae, who was six photographs behind Zhang in the beginning of the day. The Georgia fifth yr was feeling the love from the patrons and, after a three-hour climate delay, got here out swinging. She made birdies on Nos. 9, 13 and 17 and prevented a bogey down the stretch to power a playoff with Zhang at 9-under 207 for the three rounds.

“I don’t suppose I’ve ever felt happier on a golf course that a lot in my life,” Bae stated of her clutch birdie on the seventeenth. “I noticed it and I marked it and I hit it. I imply, I’ve by no means heard such massive like yelling on a golf course. It simply felt wonderful.”

On the primary playoff gap, each gamers discovered the golf green off the 18th tee, however Bae had the distinct benefit on the inexperienced after Zhang’s method shot caught a slope and failed to succeed in the again pin. Bae’s birdie got here up quick and Zhang was in a position to lag putt her first and save par to increase the playoff to its second gap, No. 10.

Each gamers as soon as once more discovered the golf green off the tee, however this time it was Zhang with the benefit on the inexperienced after Bae blew her method beneath a tree within the pine straw. It took two extra photographs for Bae to search out the inexperienced, and when it was Zhang’s flip to play, she hit the pin together with her putt and tapped in for par and the win.

“I felt assured. However I feel I simply tugged it slightly bit, and it went previous the inexperienced into the bushes within the again,” Bae stated. “I imply, I attempted, however Rose, she had a incredible day. Hat’s off to her.”

Zhang beforehand received the 2020 U.S. Ladies’s Novice, 2021 U.S. Women’ Junior and 2022 NCAA particular person nationwide championship, and her win down Magnolia Lane will cement her legacy as one in every of, if not the, greatest beginner golfers of all time.