Rose Zhang Lays Down Struggles of Continuing On LPGA Career With College: ‘It’s Quite Painful’

Did you know that Rose Zhang‘s scoring average on par-4s in 2025 has been 4.13? It has just been that kind of season for the 22-year-old, who has built a reputation of dominating the LPGA Tour over the last few years. However, this year, Zhang has only played 11 events so far and missed 5 cuts out of them. The promising young star has struggled to perform consistently. Despite the challenges, she admitted that she still remains positive as she continues to fight for a title at TPC Boston.

After completing her second round in the 2025 FM Championship, Zhang was asked about the roller-coaster of a year she has had so far. She told the media, “I think in general I didn’t really have that great of a schedule. I was in school earlier this year, and then I got injured straight out of the bat.”

Rose is a Stanford University student to is pursuing her Communications degree in the winter quarters classes to complete her course. She only concluded her classes on March 14, 2025, and returned to action a couple of weeks later in the Ford Championship. Two events in, Zhang had to take another month’s break for a nagging neck injury. That has really put her off her game, and she has been trying to play catch-up ever since.

As Zhang admitted, “The only events that I really played in were majors this year, and majors obviously test all skills of your game. I just didn’t have the intuition that I felt like I had last year in the previous years. I really had to keep my mindset very simple, stick to the process. Sometimes it gets discouraging, but I feel like with tough stretches, there is still a lot of positivity that goes on.”

Zhang could only play four of the five majors of the season as she had already missed the Chevron Championship due to a neck injury. She missed the cut in two of them and finished 73rd and T35 in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and The Amundi Evian Championship, respectively. But she always knew that she was going to underperform in the majors due to a lack of practice. In fact, before the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, she even admitted that she is only looking to improve her performance and will not actually push to compete for the title.

Her goal right now is not to plan how to win majors. It’s simply to find her rhythm and touch. And that’s what she pointed out about her trip to Canada: “Even though I missed the cut last week, I played really well the first day, and just the second day, nothing really went my way. That’s just how the game is, and I’m accepting that and also just going for it.” Zhang missed the cut by 2 strokes with a 69-76. She couldn’t manage a single birdie on Friday and scored 5 bogeys to crash out of the event.

When she was asked how she manages her emotions after the ups and downs, the 2-time LPGA Tour champion replied, “I think at the end of the day it’s something I want to do, it’s something that I want to gain for myself. So I am going back this fall just to go back to school; then I’ll finish up next winte,r which is really exciting.” As challenging as it might get, her goal is to complete her Communications degree even if she might not pursue a career connected with it.

Her dream is still to become one of the best golfers in the world. And she has the skills to deliver on that. But it’s not only skills that Zhang will have to rely on to make it big on the LPGA Tour. Luckily, she did speak about another quality that helps her “balance” everything better. “I would say with all the balance, it requires a lot of patience and dedication, reliance on people around you, but also yourself. So I will say it hasn’t been very easy, but it’s something that I would do all over again, even though it’s quite painful.”

Patience and dedication are key qualities that are required to find success in any stage of life. Right now, she is using those qualities to balance her education and golf career. However, she will soon be able to use those qualities only on the golf course to rise up the ranks and possibly reach her destiny of becoming the Tiger Woods of the LPGA Tour. But when will that time arrive? Let’s find out.

When will Rose Zhang completely shift her focus to golf?

Rose Zhang’s priorities are divided between golf and her education right now. And she is determined to complete her degree while pursuing professional golf. At the same time, it may have a huge effect on her ability to win titles, which might not be the case for long.

A few months ago, Zhang had revealed that her course is due to be completed in 2027. Considering her schedule, it should be done by March of the year. While fans might not get to see the best of Rose Zhang till then, they can anticipate watching the best of her after it. With 2025 nearing its end, only a year and a half remain for Nelly Korda & Co. to win all that they can on the LPGA Tour. After that, the best of Rose Zhang might just take over the Tour entirely.