Q. All right, here Rose Zhang after the first rounds the The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Rose, been a minute. I know you've been away at school. How good does it feel to start with a 68, get back in the saddle out here?
ROSE ZHANG: Feels really good actually. This is my first competitive round since Cincinnati, which it's been quite a while. I'm in the full fledge of school, so a lot going on this afternoon for me.
But I feel very confident that body is feeling good and at least I can get a lot of improvements for the days coming.
Q. I know it wasn't a mental break for you, but to have that opportunity to rest your body with these two important events wrapping up the season, what did that do for maybe your health or even your mental health to just be able to put the clubs away and focus on one thing?
ROSE ZHANG: Right. I think it was very important for me. I would say the last three years have been a little bit hectic. I haven't really had time to process everything.
So with me being able to kind of go back to the basics and not only rejuvenate any body but also get my mind fresh and ready for the upcoming season, I think that's my main priority right now.
And I feel like I'm enjoying golf a lot more; whereas before I think I got the game a little bit too much inside my head.
So I think this is a good step in the direction that I want to go regardless of what score I put out.
Q. You're one of quite a few actually ANNIKA Award winners in the field here. Can you just speak to the relationship you have with Annika and how much she's invested in women's golf and what it means to be an ANNIKA Alumni for you?
ROSE ZHANG: It's honestly incredible to come here and play Annika's event as a professional. I think the last time -- the first time I really got to meet her was at the Junior ANA Inspiration and I got to do a one-on-one interview with her when I think I was 14.
I think that moment I asked her a question of how do you really enjoy the game, how do you make sure it doesn't keep up with you or doesn't tear you down?
She just said, smell the roses. Like she wished she did that more in her 82-win streak and everything that she's accomplished.
But to come back and see how she has provided a route for every single pathway, not only as a junior but as a college player but now as a professional, it's honestly really astounding.
Q. When you're in school mode, do you get away from golf completely or do you still get out to the range once or twice a week?
ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, so I've been making more of an effort to be able to go practice. The only problem is sometimes my schedule doesn't allow it. My schedule on Tuesday, Thursdays is from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. I just have straight classes and only have ten minutes to walk if class it class.
So unfortunately I think only then that kind of hinders my ability, but I also like to just because I'm able to treat one thing at a time.
But, yeah.
Q. The follow-up question to that is you know you're coming up on getting back into tournament events. What's the week or couple weeks like before trying -- I don't want to say you're cramming -- but you have to work that in a lot more.
ROSE ZHANG: I realized cramming doesn't really help when it comes to golf if I'm being completely honest. It's like cramming for a test. Sure, you can cram a couple times.
I feel like golf, if you really want to play well you have to be diligent and either having a good perspective coming into the week or just getting work done. And I think I've realized that and I have two more events where it's, oh, first week back; do we really know how to play this game.
So I think, yeah, to be fair, it's not exactly all rainbows and sunshine when I come back.
Q. Just good start. How do you build going forward? Looks like you putted pretty well out there today.
ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, I think the biggest thing about this year was a lot of my putting confidence, and I think I can take this into the next couple events and the next couple rounds that I play, which I'm really excited about. So slowly trending.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports