Rose Chan entered this week looking for her second LPGA Tour win. On Thursday, Zhang dominated New Jersey’s Upper Montclair Country Club in the Cognizant Founders Cup. Zhang shot a 9-under 63, the lowest round of his professional career.
Her hot play continued on Friday, with Zhang posting another strong round with a 4-under 68. She entered the weekend at the top of the leaderboard at 13 under.
To put her performance in perspective, Chan maintains a lead of at least seven strokes over everyone except Madeleine Sagstrom and Nelly Korda.
Of course, Korda is trying to make his own history. She has won the last five tournaments and is trying to become the first woman in history to win six consecutive tournaments.
As of this writing, Korda is alone in third place with seven under par after the 11th hole.
But if Chan continues to play like this, that might not be a problem.
Zhang started the day on the back nine, making his first bogey of the week on the par-4 16th and being out for 36. But that didn’t deter him, and the 20-year-old prodigy ignited a fire at the back.
She finished the round with birdies on the second, third, fifth and seventh holes. Zhang, who entered the field early on Friday, was in the lead by six strokes at the end of the competition.
But Sagstrom hadn’t teed off yet. The Swede also put together a great round himself. By the time he stood on the 14th tee, Sagstrom was at 12 under par and had significantly closed the gap.
It looks like there could be a three-woman race this weekend.
At last year’s Mizuho Americas Open, Zhang became the first woman to win in her LPGA debut since Beverly Hanson in 1954. That truck was also in New Jersey. There must be something in the water.
Perhaps the Stanford Cardinal is already a world-class player and will continue to be for a long time to come.
Kendall Capps is the senior editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through.For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough On all major social media platforms.
