htmlOne day at the age of 19, Zhang Siyang saw a golf club left to his father by his relatives. Tennis, swimming... She inherited almost all of her father's hobbies; but she was still completely unfamiliar with golf, so Xiao Siyang decided to give it a try-picking it-picked up the cue, posing, and she waved it-the first shot, swinging it in the air.
, she didn't hit the second shot either. Holding her breath and focusing all her attention, she waved the third shot, not only hitting the ball, but also almost flew out of the yard.
"My dad looked at me, and his expression seemed to be: 'Well, maybe you should try two golf classes.'" Zhang Siyang recalled.
Zhang Siyang and Caddy Dad
Today, eight years later, in the LPGA Grand Slam level ANA Championship, Zhang Siyang won the 11th place, tied with Jiang Xiaolin, the world's second professional golfer, and won the "Best Amateur Player Award" without any controversy, and was also the best among the 7 Chinese players in the game. At this moment, Zhang Siyang, 17 years old, was her father who accompanied her to compete in the Grand Slam.
Seeing the name Zhang Siyang, many domestic football fans must be a little unfamiliar with it. But if you mention the English name of this Chinese-American girl in the United States - Rose Zhang, it is definitely the number one "rose" that is absolutely well-known in the amateur golf circle! (Rose Chinese translation Rose)
From May 2019 to the present, Zhang Siyang has always ranked first in the AJGA teenager women's golf ranking list in the United States. Relying on her amazing performance in this professional Grand Slam in the ANA Championship, she is also expected to rise to No.1 in the latest World Women’s Amateur Ranking! It is worth mentioning that this is her third time playing in the LPGA Grand Slam after the 2018 ANA Championship and the 2019 US Women's Open. In these three top professional competitions, Zhang Siyang not only successfully advanced, but also scored 69 and 68 consecutive shots in the second and third rounds of the All-National Aerial Tournament last week, and was expected to win the championship.
Zhang Siyang's final hole in the Grand Slam catching birds
However, the most exciting moment in her golf career so far is the American Women's Amateur Championship that just ended last month: As the only junior golfer in the quarterfinals, Zhang Siyang passed the hurdles and reached the finals, and finally passed 38 holes to win the defending champion Gabriela Rafters, winning the championship in this USGA annual competition and becoming the first Chinese player to win the championship in the 115-year history of the event!
"That was an incredible victory." Zhang Siyang said, "I was injured. After hitting the last few holes, I almost had no sense of my arms, and I didn't know how I survived..."
won the most important amateur championship in the United States, and Zhang Siyang ushered in the start of high school. In addition to preparing for the upcoming ANA Championship, she also has to take into account her studies. Even before boarding the plane to the Grand Slam field, she will ask the teacher what she needs to complete so that she can do her homework on the plane.
won the first Chinese championship in the US Women's Amateur Championship in a century
Considering that she missed 50 days of courses because of the competition, but still maintained a 4.6 credit score, which is commendable.
Zhang Siyang currently lives in Irvine, south of , California, and is studying in the 12th grade of Pacific High School here. As early as the 10th grade, she had already accepted the oral admission intention of Stanford University and will officially sign a contract with Stanford in November. She will enroll in this top institution for the 2021 fall school year, following the footsteps of Tiger Woods , Wei Shengmei , Wu Biyuan, and Ye Lei , and become a member of the Stanford University golf school team.
As for his father Zhang Haibin, he asked Xiao Si to learn golf to help his daughter with a better future.
Zhang Haibin immigrated to the United States from Shenyang in 2000. Three years later, Zhang Siyang was born in California. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Zhang Haibin, who likes sports, will ask his daughter to try all sports events. However, after getting involved in golf, in less than three months, Zhang Siyang's football skills had surpassed his peers who had practiced for one or two years, and won the championship in an amateur competition! The genius level shown was far beyond the tennis and other sports she played before.
12-year-old Zhang Siyang
"I like golf very much, it's a passion," she said.
Zhang Haibin saw his daughter's obsession with golf and talent, so he made a bold decision: resolutely quit his job and devoted himself to accompanying his daughter to learn and practice.
It was from this day that Zhang Siyang's family could only rely on their mother's work to support their family, and the economic situation became very difficult. Fortunately, Xiao Zhang Siyang was very sensible. In order to reduce the burden on her parents, she kept all her ball equipment simple, and she never even bought golf gloves. Her hands once made thick calluses because she didn't wear gloves to play ball. Qi Hanzhang and Zhu Kaili, the founders of
Pacific Middle School, were moved by her extraordinary talent. They not only provided her with a full scholarship, but also specially arranged flexible courses so that they could concentrate on practicing. In order to better help Zhang Siyang, Pacific Middle School also set up a "Zhang Siyang Golf" charity account to help her raise funds for the competition.
Zhang Siyang will be enrolled in Stanford University next year
In addition to his talent, Zhang Siyang practices very hard. She has practiced for at least 3 hours a day since she was a child. She is windy and rainy, hot and cold winter, and never waver, and practices almost all day on weekends. This made her score a year after learning the ball systematically, and she scored the highest-level California event " Toyota Cup " with an 11-year-old young man, which is only for players over 12 years old. It was also this year that Zhang Siyang was introduced to George Pinnell, a famous PGA coach in California.
Every Thursday at 4 pm, Pinel will guide the Chinese girl's swing at her academy. It is almost 50 kilometers away from Zhang Siyang's house, but she has never been late. However, after winning a series of top ten in the California Youth Tournament, Zhang Siyang was unable to win a championship. On Christmas 2015, Pinel received a call from Zhang Siyang. The 12-year-old girl asked only one stupid question:
"George, when will I win a trophy?"
Zhang Siyang and swing coach Pinel
"I laughed." Pinel recalled, "I replied, 'Listen, Rose, this will definitely happen. You just need to keep working hard and continue to create opportunities for yourself to win. One day, it will happen to you.' In fact, winning the game is second to her. She only wanted a trophy at that time, haha."
Two months later, Zhang Siyang won his first "Toyota Cup" championship. When she finally got the trophy as big as a watermelon, her smile almost filled the entire awards photo. Next, she won the first AJGA championship; next, she was another "Toyota Cup" championship; then, she won the AJGA...
Next, Zhang Siyang's golf journey made great achievements: she participated in the Grand Slam at the age of 14 by winning the ANA Youth Championship; at the age of 15, she won the championship with a record of 40 years in the history of the competition; last year's first Augusta Country In the Women's Amateur Championship, she was one of the first female players to enter Augusta to participate in the competition and successfully advanced; in 2017 and 2019, she helped the US team win the Junior Solheim Cup twice, and was selected for the US team to go to Disneyland Paris in 2018, helping the team achieve six consecutive championships; last year, she joined hands with future senior Wu Biyuan to help the US team win the gold medal in the golf event.
Today, Zhang Siyang is the only high school student among the top 20 female amateur players in the world. She hopes to become a professional player in the LPGA one day.
Last year, Zhang Siyang and Wu Biyuan won the Pan American Games gold medal for the US team
"I believe I have a chance," she said.
But in the reports of local Chinese media in California, Zhang Siyang is already the "most notable Chinese female star in golf after Zeng Yani and Feng Shanshan !"
Pinell said that he was not particularly surprised by Zhang Siyang's current achievements: "I know what this girl can do. There are some things she is born with and you can't guide you.If she is 3 strokes behind the leader, she is always looking for opportunities to achieve a breakthrough, bite her opponent and finally counterattack and win by 1 stroke. She just can do it all, this is a real fighter. "
"School Master"
, who won the championship while maintaining a high school 4.6 credit score, but although he is the first amateur in the United States for more than 80 consecutive weeks, in school, Zhang Siyang is just an ordinary high school student, just like other 17-year-old girls. When she is not playing golf, she will do her homework, surf the Internet, watch Chinese variety shows (yes, she will of course speak fluent Chinese), and go out with her friends.
The night before the competition, Zhang Siyang likes to prepare herself mentally by listening to the Bible radio.
" This helps to relax and believe in everything she does. "She said: "This makes me play well under pressure. "
Zhang Siyang, with a bright future, is expected to become the world's number one for amateur women
Drive north from Zhang Siyang's home and you can reach the birthplace of Tiger Woods. Zhang Siyang has a photo of her asking for a photo of Tiger Woods during the 2018 Youth Ryder Cup. However, if she continues to shine so brightly on the Grand Slam stage, maybe one day, Woods will also ask to take a photo with her. ◈
Do interesting golf short video
We are honored to be a member of the above institutions Friends who are " watching " will catch birds tomorrow⛳️
