World No. 1 Nelly Korda and young phenom Rose Zhang are back playing on the LPGA this week in Arizona.
Nelly Korda, Rose Zhang return to LPGA after lengthy hiatus for different reasons
Two of the LPGA’s most popular players are back in this week’s Ford Championship field in Arizona.
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
Korda spent the last month off, resting, training, and hanging out with family at home. She also participated in the world-famous Seminole Pro-Am, which draws an impressive guest list year-in and year-out. Even Tiger Woods played in it before he ruptured his Achilles. So did Nelly’s sister Jessica — the Korda sisters played together in the same group.
“Other than that, just kind of spent some time with family,” Korda said.
“Didn’t really travel too much. Did some exciting things here and there. Mainly just practiced and worked out a lot.”
Meanwhile, Zhang did the opposite: she finished her quarter at Stanford and completed 22 units.
“It’s been a little bit difficult,” Zhang said of her studies.
“But I had a little bit of a different approach to this quarter versus last quarter. Last quarter I felt how difficult it was going through the season and maintaining just my energy and my stability in the things that I was doing. So I decided to use this winter quarter to just be a student. As I said before, it was more so the objective of trying to bring balance back into my life; whereas last quarter, I both took 20 units and then I played a lot of golf on top of that.”
She has not played since the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January, when she tied for 10th.
“I’d say I give myself a little bit of time to adjust. There are a lot of events this year, so it allows me to have an opportunity to have an open mind,” Zhang said when asked about switching gears from the classroom to the course.
“I think I need a lot of technique work, a lot of things that I need to work on in terms of my game from the long game to the short, so it’s a lot more focused on that rather than just trying to go for a score, go for wins, all that stuff. Because I think if you take care of your game in the process, then that will put you and set you up for opportunities.”
Now that the coursework is behind her — at least for this year — Zhang can focus on her LPGA schedule.
But she must complete 40 more units to graduate from Stanford. Essentially, Zhang has two more full quarters of classes to finish. She plans to return to Palo Alto, California, this fall and complete another winter quarter next year. That will put her on track to earn her degree in 2026.
So, at this time next year, we will likely talk about Zhang returning to the LPGA after a lengthy hiatus once again. But at least she will have a diploma in her hand.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
