The relentless winds that have whipped off St. Andrews Bay have given the best female players in the world absolute fits on day one of the AIG Women’s Open.
Only a handful of players are at even par or better through 18 holes, including Rose Zhang, who posted an even-par 72 on Thursday. But Zhang gave a pretty blunt assessment of how things went after her first professional round on the Old Course at St. Andrews.
“That was tough,” Zhang said.
“My head is pounding.”
Forty-mile-per-hour gusts forced players to think long and hard about how to play their next shot. Of course, that led to a slow pace of play on Thursday—a glacial round that took almost six hours to complete. But tournament organizers knew the wind would blow this hard, so they sent the field off from split tees and slowed the speeds down on the greens. The R&A did not want to have a delay on Thursday.
“Usually, the greens are faster, so the ball is actually rolling on the greens,” Zhang added.
“But I’ve never had to back off so many putts. I’m standing and losing balance. It was definitely memorable.”
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On the 7th hole—her third to last hole of the day—Zhang said that her ball moved slightly because of the wind. She then placed it back in its original spot and proceeded from there.
“You get anxiety thinking, did I just do something? But the reality is Mother Nature decided to move your ball a bit,” Zhang said.
“That was the craziest thing.”
Zhang made a bogey on the 7th, her second consecutive dropped shot.
She actually birdied the famous 17th and 18th holes earlier in the day and made the turn with a 2-under 34 on the back nine. But no more birdies came over the course of her second nine.
“I wasn’t thinking about my score too much, especially since every single shot, you have to be so present, and you have to be grinding, staying committed to every single thing you’re doing out there,” Zhang said.
“I feel like it’s so easy to lose focus, especially when you hit some errant shots or have really long putts for birdie or par. I really try to stay patient out there. Patience requires you to hold still and be committed to every single shot you’re hitting, and that’s the commitment that patience that I had out there, and I’m pretty proud of how I did, especially down the stretch.”
Considering all this, it should surprise nobody that Zhang’s head was pounding. But if someone did admit to not feeling anxious or frustrated on Thursday, that would surely surprise everybody. St. Andrew’s took no prisoners and will continue to do so as the week wears on.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
