The U.S. Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour’s Mizuho Americas Open ($2.75 million purse) will be held at Liberty National Golf Club (Par 71) in Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.A., for four days starting next month.
New this year, the tournament will feature the likes of World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, Lydia Ko (NZL) and Lilia Boo (USA), as well as amateur women’s golf’s most dominant player, 20-year-old Rose Chang (USA).
With a status comparable to that of Lydia Ko and Tiger Woods in amateur golf, it will be interesting to see how competitive Zhang can be in her professional debut.
Zhang, who is of Chinese descent, has held the top spot in the amateur women’s world golf rankings for 141 consecutive weeks since September 2020. That’s just shy of Lydia Ko’s previous record of 130 weeks.
She also won 12 titles in 20 tournaments for Stanford University, breaking the record of “college senior” Tiger Woods (USA) for most wins (11).
“I’m happy to officially announce that I’m turning pro,” Zhang said on Instagram recently, adding, “A new chapter in my life is beginning.”
Meanwhile, Nellie Coda (USA), who recently lost her world No. 1 ranking to Ko, withdrew due to back pain.
In addition to Ko, other Korean players on the roster include Park Sung-hyun, Hae-ran Hae, Kim Se-young, An Na-lin, Kim Arim, and Ji Eun-hee.
The Mizuho Americas Open is held in conjunction with a junior event.
Twenty-four American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) players will compete in separate events at the same time and place in a stableford format.
They will play the first and second rounds separately from the professionals and will be paired together in the third round after making the cut.
“The juniors will learn a lot from seeing how serious and hardworking the pros are on the course,” Michelle Wie West (USA), the tournament’s host, told local media, adding, “I played on the LPGA Tour when I was younger and it helped me in my career.”
A global star since her teens, West won five times on the LPGA Tour, including the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, before retiring after the U.S. Women’s Open last June.
This will be the first time Liberty National Golf Club has hosted an LPGA Tour event rather than a PGA Tour event 메이저놀이터.