Zhang Sets Course Fire With Stellar Start at PGA World!

Rose Zhang has a 10-page paper standing between her and a Stanford degree in communications. The subject matter is nothing you would imagine: beer brewing. The 22-year-old Zhang laughed when discussing the last item on her to-do list in her college career during a Tuesday press conference at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in Menlo Park, Calif.

, where the LPGA plays its second domestic event of the season in the Fortinet Founders Cup. Zhang turned professional nearly three years ago after her sophomore season at Stanford, where she twice won the individual NCAA championship, but she still was determined to earn her degree. Zhang has many obligations during this finals week while also playing in the tournament pro-am on Wednesday and then the first round Thursday—the same day the paper on beer brewing is due.

She had yet to start it at the time of her press conference. “It's actually an archeology class,” Zhang explained. “After I did my own beer brewing, so with the mashing, the grinding of materials, discovered that apparently alcohol has been long dated back into prehistoric times and early civilizations,” Zhang said.

“We were diving into that. And then we were diving into actual lmicro granules with microscopes, so been looking at yeast, random molds. It's out of sight out of mind right now.