The three women’s golf team members representing Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics have been finalized, including two former NCAA athletes: Rose Zhang (Stanford) and Lilia Vu (UCLA). Nelly Korda rounds out the team — she turned professional at 18 years old and took gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Women’s golf Olympic competition will take place Aug. 7-10 at Le Golf National.
The 2024 Paris Olympics mark just the fourth time that women’s golf has been played on the Olympic stage. Women’s golf was first played at the 1900 Paris Olympics, featuring 10 competitors from both France and the United States. American Margaret Abbott won gold, but interestingly enough, she was never aware of her feat as it was unclear that the women’s golf tournament was even part of the Games. Women’s golf took a hiatus from the Olympics from 1904-2012, making an appearance for the first time in a century at the Rio 2016 Olympics and then again at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Let’s look further into the college careers of Rose Zhang and Lilia Vu:
Rose Zhang, Stanford (2022-23)
Rose Zhang became the first woman to win two individual NCAA golf titles (2022, 2023). Zhang also won consecutive ANNIKA and Honda Sport awards as well as back-to-back WGCA Golfer of the Year, Golfweek Player of the Year and Pac-12 Golfer of the Year honors. In her freshman year, Stanford won the 2022 team title.
Zhang currently holds the NCAA career scoring average record (69.24 in 62 career rounds). She twice set NCAA single-season scoring average records at 69.68 during her freshman season and 68.81 in her sophomore campaign. In April 2023, she reached 136 consecutive weeks as the world’s leading female amateur golfer, beating the previous record set by Leona Maguire (Republic of Ireland) in 2018.
With eight wins in 10 events her sophomore season, Zhang tied for most victories in women’s collegiate golf history. That mark also matched Tiger Woods for most wins in Stanford golf history for a single season. Her 19-under score in the 2023 NCAA Pullman Regional was the lowest regional score in NCAA history.
After two seasons at Staford, Zhang went pro in May 2023 and promptly became the first golfer in 72 years to win an LPGA event in her pro debut. Just over a year later, she has qualified for her first Olympics.
Lilia Vu, UCLA (2016-18)
Another California native joins the U.S. Olympic team roster in Lilia Vu. She won eight tournaments with UCLA over her three-year career with the Bruins, setting the school record for career wins (eight). In 2016, Vu was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year; she had five top-10 finishes in 11 tournaments, with a scoring average of 71.7.
Vu was named WGCA Player of the Year, Pac-12 Golfer of the Year and a Honda Award finalist as a junior in 2018. She posted a 70.37 scoring average that year, the lowest full-season scoring average in UCLA history.
Vu was a three-time WGCA First Team All-American and All-Pac 12 golfer. Six years removed from turning pro after her junior year, Vu joins the U.S. Olympic roster for her first Games in 2024.