Rose Zhang joins ‘Today’ and ‘SportsCenter’ in New York City after historic LPGA debut victory

“I would describe it as a fairy tale so far,” said Zhang on ESPN.

Rose Zhang put off studying for a bit to take a media tour of New York City, stopping first at NBC’s Today Show Plaza to talk about her historic victory at the Mizuho Americas Open. The 20-year-old beat major champion and fellow NCAA and Augusta National Women’s Amateur winner Jennifer Kupcho in a two-hole playoff at Liberty National to clinch an LPGA title in her professional debut.

Zhang, who has won 10 of her last 12 stroke-play events, told “Today” hosts she had more than 500 messages on her cell phone when she finally took a break from the madness to look.

“I would describe it as a fairy tale so far,” said Zhang, while making an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Monday afternoon. “It’s just been such an incredible week. I couldn’t have imagined, scripted this week in any better fashion.”

Zhang said she came into the week simply wanting to learn what the “real pros” do inside the ropes. The former Stanford superstar moved up 420 places in the Rolex Rankings to No. 62 in the world.

Zhang accepted LPGA membership after her victory, which means she’s now a tour rookie. Her next start will be the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol followed by the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach.

“I came into the week with a lot of media attention,” said Zhang. “There was a lot happening. The fact that I was able to prevail and full on execute what I needed to do on the golf course and come out on top – it really is just an incredible feeling.”

After a tour of Manhattan, Zhang prepared for her toughest assignment of the week: a final in CS-106A.

“Currently still trying to grind in that class. It’s been a little unfortunate for me,” said the communications major last week with a laugh. “I’m not a CS (computer science) major. Will never code again after this class.”

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