Rose Zhang during the final round of the 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup. | Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
Rose Zhang, who arrived at the Mizuho Americas Open as the defending champion, pulled out of the event Thursday.
Rose Zhang will not defend her title at the Mizuho Americas Open this week.
She withdrew only three holes into her first round early Thursday morning, which began at 7:55 a.m. local time. Zhang opened with a par at 10, made a double-bogey on the 11th, and then parred the 12th hole before calling it quits due to an illness.
The Stanford standout arrived at Liberty National fresh off an impressive win at the Cognizant Founders Cup, her second career LPGA victory. It also marked her second win in the state of New Jersey after her thrilling victory at Liberty National one year ago.
But after her win last week, Zhang had an outing on Long Island on Monday. She then had her pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday and spent Wednesday practicing. But Wednesday featured miserable and wet conditions with temperatures in the 50s.
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
Rose Zhang holds the trophy after winning the 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup.
Yet, despite her busy schedule, Zhang had nothing to say about her health earlier in the week.
She instead reflected on her recent success.
“Last week came a little bit unexpectedly, I think. Going into the event, I haven’t had the best season yet, and I’ve been learning a lot about myself, been learning a lot about my game and how I should prep,” Zhang said of his win last week.
“There wasn’t anything that aligned super well when I was out there playing. I think starting out the first two rounds gave me a little bit of confidence to really kind of have a spark in playing the game as I envision it, and then to be able to really cut to the wire and play against Madelene [Sagstrom] basically almost like a match play format was super incredible and had a lot of fun.”
Zhang’s next start will come at the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club in two weeks.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
