The Solheim Cup teams are all set with the finalization of the American team last week. Over the next two weeks leading into the competition, we will rank all 24 players in the Solheim Cup for both teams, continuing today with Rose Zhang
We have reached the top 10 of the countdown now, where we enter into a run of optimistic takes for players who have performed well in past Solheim Cups, despite questionable form at the moment.
Before Rose Zhang even stepped on the course as a professional, she was viewed as the future of the United States Solheim Cup team. There was good reason for that. Zhang was one of the greatest amateurs in women’s golf history, regardless of gender, and was still so young that the upside seemed immense.
After a disappointing first showing in the Solheim Cup, where she went 0-2-1 and really seemed to struggle getting into any rhythm, she paid off that hype with a 4-0-0 performance in 2024, earning the most points of anyone on either team and looking like a superstar. That performance made a bit more sense. Zhang is known as a skilled match play performer and is such a steady presence on a team.
Zhang enters this Solheim Cup in an interesting position. She relied on a captain’s selection to make the team thanks to two years of injury issues and struggles with her game. To add onto the concerns, she suffered a back injury a couple weeks back in Portland that kept her out of the CPKC Women’s Open. Zhang’s last win came in the first half of 2024 and she hasn’t been in contention much since.
Still, Zhang’s game shows up in spurts, which has me unconcerned about her overall form and has me viewing it more in a bubble. While she did deal with injuries in Portland, she played fantastic, finishing eighth and hitting a lot of fairways and greens. She had another fantastic week in Boston as well that should lead right into the Solheim Cup.
There is still some concerns about her health, but not enough to seriously impact her ranking here. She has a fantastic partnership with Andrea Lee in fourball that absolutely demoralized the Europeans in 2024 (they never reached hole 15) and she looked fantastic in match play. She hasn’t yet shown this type of performance on European soil, but that isn’t something to get too worried about.
Zhang’s game is trending in the right direction, and the Solheim Cup is her chance to show that form on a big-time stage.
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