Weeks After Breaking Tiger Woods’ 27-Year-Old Record, Beating Lionel Messi Becomes the New Target for 20-Year-Old Golf Phenom

Rose Zhang is a phenomenal golfer with a penchant for winning. The LPGA community has been overlooked when it comes to many vital decisions in the golfing world but it appears Zhang intends to change that.

It wasn’t too long ago when Rose Zhang participated in the National Collegiate Athletic Association: Golf Division’s events at Stanford. Most of her matches were on a par with a mean average score of 69. In 18 of the matches she played, she made it into the top 10.

However, Zhang is a very competitive person and loves to win. Tiger Woods, who set a personal best for 11 tournament wins, lost the claim to the record to Rose Zhang who had 12 tournament wins. And that was only the beginning.

After Woods, Zhang wants a win over Messi

Following her superlative performance, the NCAA Champion decided to go pro, with a little offer from the KPMG to motivate her. Joining the LPGA Tour is any female golfer’s dream, and the newly-turned-pro had a challenge in her first tournament at the Mizuho Americas Open. Jennifer Kupcho and Zhang tied for first place with a total score of 9-under par 279.

Also Read: ‘I Threw All My Silver Medals’: Amid Intense Battle At 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Star Rose Zhang Reveals Her Killer Mindset – EssentiallySports

As is the tradition, the two players had a round of sudden death and Zhang emerged victorious. Her maiden win was at her first professional event, but Zhang wasn’t even close to done.

After defeating the legendary Tiger Woods, she set her sights to defeat yet another GOAT of the sporting world, but not necessarily in golf. Lionel Messi and Rose Zhang were both nominated for their spectacular performance by EPSY. It is an online contest to determine which played is performing beyond expectations. Fans can vote for one out of four options based on the specific performance of the sportsperson in a particular event.

Zhang and Messi have been pitted against each other. Rose Zhang’s sudden-death round at the Mizuho Americas Open vs Lionel Messi winning the World Cup final against France, are the two performances to be judged against each other. The Pro LPGA Tour golfer is super excited as to what can happen with the support of fans. She shared the news on her Instagram story as well, inspiring her fans to help her emerge victorious.

There are 22 categories and Zhang vs Messi is on the fourth page. Fans only need to click on their preferred sporting entity’s performance in each category. Rose is counting on the votes.

Why Rose Zhang is known as the female Tiger Woods

Zhang is often held in the same regard as Tiger Woods and for good reason. There are many similarities between the legend of men’s golf and the evolving great talent of women’s golf beside the NCAA wins. Rose Zhang has broken Woods’ record but they are way too similar to be considered competitors. It is more like the former laid a path out for the latter to conquer.

For starters, both golfers attended Stanford University. For another, Tiger Woods and Zhang both turned pros at the age of 20. In fact, Zhang made the announcement shortly after celebrating her 20th birthday.

To top it all, both golfers are changing the public view of their respective associations. While Woods’ performance since his early days drew eyeballs to the sport and men’s golf in general, Rose Zhang turning pro was one of the crucial news that attracted more audience to the LPGA.

Another similarity between the two golfers is their competitive nature. Aside from that, both players held themselves in comparison to players of other sports. Although Rose may not have chosen to compare against Lionel Messi in the EPSY online contest, he is a legend she wants to defeat. Similarly, even though Tiger Woods did not want to defeat Michael Jordan, he aspired to make history like him.

Truly, the line between competitors and idols is blurred in the case of Zhang and Woods. No doubt, the LPGA golfer has a long way to go and it is anyone’s guess how many more records she will break.

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