Rose Zhang will play the first two rounds of this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in a marquee group alongside fellow American Lexi Thompson and Australia’s Minjee Lee.
Zhang is playing in her first major tournament since turning pro and coming off a victory in her LPGA Tour debut at the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this month. The 20-year-old former Stanford star will tee off on the first hole at 8:39 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Thompson, 28, tied for second at last year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, failing to hold a two-shot lead on Sunday and losing by one shot to champion In Gee Chun.
Lee, 27, won the 2021 Evian Championship and the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open and also tied with Thompson one shot behind Chun at last year’s Women’s PGA.
Chun will tee off at 8:17 a.m. on Thursday, two groups ahead of the other trio alongside American Danielle Kang and Australia’s Hannah Green at Baltusrol Golf Club (lower course) in Springfield, N.J.
World No. 1 Jun Young Ko will start her championship in the afternoon wave’s marquee group. The South Korean will begin on the back nine at 2:01 p.m. alongside second-ranked American Nelly Korda and third-ranked Lydia Ko, the New Zealand star who leads the Race to the CME Globe standings.
No. 4-ranked Lilia Vu will also tee off on No. 10 at 1:39 p.m. in a group with Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who won the Women’s PGA in 2016, and South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai.
Zhang vaulted 420 spots to No. 62 in the world rankings following her victory on June 4. She then took a break for final exams at Stanford and to move.
Zhang enters this week ranked No. 64. She has accepted a full membership on the LPGA Tour and is eligible for this year’s United States Solheim Cup team, which captain Stacy Lewis will announce in August.
The top seven players on the U.S. points list will earn automatic spots on the 12-player team, as will the top two players in the world rankings who are not already qualified.
Lewis will select the final three players. One event into her professional career, the 20-year-old Zhang is already the 15th-ranked U.S. player in the world.
–Field Level Media
