S-18: Top 75 point leaders in the Rolex Women's Rankings as of May 25

Already a first alternate from the West Orange, N.J., qualifier, Zhang officially got into the 2026 field when she was among the top 75 point leaders in the Rolex Rankings on May 25. Zhang had fallen outside the top 75 for the first cutoff of March 23, a week before entries closed. Zhang, who was the undisputed No. 1 player in the Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking since her triumph over Gabriela Ruffels in the 2020 U.S. Women's Amateur, turned professional after the 2023 NCAA Championships and promptly won her debut on June 4, 2023, just nine days after making the announcement that she was leaving Stanford and joining the play-for-pay ranks. Zhang, the first player to win an LPGA Tour event in her pro debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951, defeated 2018 USA Curtis Cup competitor Jennifer Kupcho on the second playoff hole to capture the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J. This came just under two weeks after becoming the first player to win multiple NCAA Division I women's individual titles. Zhang, whose second LPGA Tour triumph came in the 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup, had spent a record 141 consecutive weeks atop the WAGR. Later in 2023, Zhang represented the United States in the Solheim Cup in Spain, and then again in 2024 in Virginia. This will be her eighth consecutive start in the U.S. Women's Open, and third as a professional. Zhang surpassed Leona Maguire for the most weeks ever in the top spot of the WAGR on April 19, 2023. In 2021, Zhang won the U.S. Girls' Junior to become the eighth player to have won both the U.S. Women's Amateur and U.S. Girls' Junior titles, but the first to capture the latter second. On April 1, 2023, she defeated Jenny Bae in a two-hole, sudden-death playoff to claim the Augusta National Women's Amateur. In the fall of 2022, she won the McCormack Medal as the No. 1 player in the WAGR for a third consecutive season. In her freshman season at Stanford University (2021-22), she helped the Cardinal to the team NCAA title at Grayhawk Golf Club, in Scottsdale, Ariz. She also was named the 2022 Annika Award winner as the nation's top female collegiate golfer, becoming the second consecutive freshman from Stanford (Rachel Heck) to achieve that feat. She also won the award in 2023. Zhang finished her Stanford career (two seasons) with a school-record (men and women) 12 wins, surpassing Tiger Woods, Patrick Rodgers and Maverick McNealy. Zhang went 4-0-1 for the USA in the 2021 Curtis Cup Match at Conwy Golf Club in Wales, leading the side to a 12.5-7.5 victory to retain the Cup. She then helped the USA retain the Cup at Merion Golf Club a week after the 2022 U.S. Women's Open at Pine Needles. In 2019, Zhang helped the USA win a mixed team gold medal in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.