ORLANDO, Fla. – Rose Zhang knew this offseason couldn’t be like the last one. Last year, she took 20 units worth of classes at Stanford while also putting in her usual amount of practice.

“I had a couple hard classes, and I lost a lot of sleep,” said Zhang. “I didn't really take care of myself.”

This time around, 21-year-old Zhang happens to be taking a class on sleep at Stanford and said she’s made getting seven to eight hours a priority. She’s immersed in 22 units of classes in Palo Alto but has cut back significantly on her practice schedule.

“You get bonus points if you fall asleep in class,” said Zhang of the popular Sleep and Dreams class. “You get squirted by a squirt gun and you have to stand up and you have to tell the whole class, ‘Drowsiness is red alert.’ It's our mantra.”

Wednesday’s pro-am round at the 2025 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions was Zhang’s second round of the year. The two-time LPGA winner had only practiced a handful of times more.

Despite the rust, Zhang opened with a 2-under 70 at the TOC playing alongside baseball’s John Smoltz and Aaron Hicks.

Zhang, who trails leader A Lim Kim by five strokes atop the leaderboard, won’t defend next week at the Founders Cup, which moved from New Jersey to Bradenton, Florida, after Cognizant dropped its title sponsorship. Instead it’s back to school for Zhang, who will wrap up finals the week before she returns to action at the Ford Championship, March 27-30 in Chandler, Arizona. Once again, she will skip the Asian swing.

“For her, she said that’s what she needs to do,” said Smoltz of Zhang’s unusual path. “I think it’s a great thing for her to follow through with. She’s got full status, those things are taken care of … the sport is in young hands. Young players are dominating, and I don’t think she hit two shots offline.”

Zhang views this week as a good time to experiment with new things in competition. Like the new putter she put in the bag as well as new Callaway Elyte clubs.

Last season, she notes that she struggled with setup in general with her putter and is trying to find more consistency in 2025.

“When you have a really comfortable setup or when you get a really consistent setup that's when you have the most confidence over a putt and you can just execute accordingly,” said Zhang.

“I kind of wiggled around with my grip. I couldn't really understand where my head was, where I was aiming in alignment.”

She ranked 75^th in putts per green in regulation on tour last year.

This time away from the grind also gives Zhang time to heal a left wrist injury that has plagued her since her amateur days. As a junior in high school, she'd hit 400 balls a day off a thin mat in her parents’ garage. She took four Advil pills in the morning and four in the evening to maintain a torrid pace of winning, ultimately suffering from wrist impingement.

“That really catches up to you,” said Zhang, who felt it again last fall. She’s still in the process of healing. The priority in the coming weeks will be short game and the gym.

As for graduation, Zhang is technically a senior now but will need two more years to finish as she’s only doing winter quarters. She’ll take 20 units twice more and walk in the spring of 2027.

“A lot of my friends are walking this spring actually,” said Zhang, “but some of them are also co-terming, they're doing their master’s programs; some of them had a gap year, so they're coming back and finishing out.

“A lot of cool things are happening in universities right now. A lot of startups being built; AI is booming. It's really cool to just witness that. I'm not really in the athletic world anymore, so a lot of my friends are really cracking down on some coding and some cool projects.”

Most would say Zhang is doing some pretty cool things, too.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rose Zhang in mix in LPGA sesason opener during break from Stanford