SI:AM | Rose Zhang Is the Real Deal

Plus, how things have gone so wrong for the Mets.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m still thinking about that photo of Victor Wembanyama standing next to a bunch of Spurs legends.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏌️‍♀️ Rose Zhang’s impressive first major

💸 The Mets’ $359 million mess

🏀 D-Wade on UD

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Awe-inspiring for her second pro tournament

Rose Zhang is golf’s next big thing—and she’s already knocking on the door of a breakout.

Zhang turned pro last month after a historic career at Stanford. She won consecutive NCAA championships, becoming the first woman in NCAA history to win two individual championships. She then made her professional debut at the Mizuho Americas Open, a week after her 20th birthday, and won the tournament in a sudden death playoff, becoming the first woman in 72 years to win in her pro debut.

So expectations were high for Zhang’s second LPGA tournament this weekend—and she had the added pressure of it being a major. After three rounds at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol in New Jersey, Zhang was a respectable one under par. It was a strong showing for the rookie, but in a tie for 12th place seven shots off the lead, she wasn’t exactly in contention.

Zhang was on fire to start the final round, though. She made five birdies over her first 11 holes to rocket up the leaderboard and find herself just one shot off the lead. Her red-hot run had people envisioning a storybook comeback victory to cement herself as one of the game’s elite. But a series of mistakes on the back nine cost Zhang a chance at victory. Gabrielle Herzig was following Zhang during her round. Here’s how she described the stretch between Nos. 13 and 16.

Zhang found herself in a precarious position on the bank of a creek on the par-4 13th. She hacked a long iron out of the rough, but found the greenside bunker and failed to make par, marking her first scorecard blemish of the day.

On No. 14, Zhang bounced right back, sticking her approach tight and sinking the short-range birdie putt to regain her stride. She sat at six under, one shot shy of her playing partner and tournament leader, Xiyu “Janet” Lin.

But Zhang missed a legitimate chance at birdie on 15, only to follow it up with the second major blip of her round on 16.

The newly minted pro missed her tee shot on the dreaded but fittingly named “amateur side,” short-siding herself with a downhill lie in a bunker on the 183-yard par-3. Bogey was a respectable score after that.

Zhang closed out the round with two pars to finish at five under for the tournament, good for a tie for eighth and a $214,811 payday. (Ruoning Yin birdied the last hole to finish at eight under and win the tournament by one stroke over Yuka Saso.)

Even though she came up short, the tournament was a sign of things to come for Zhang. The fact that she finished in the top 10 of her first major as a pro despite not playing her best golf should put the rest of the LPGA Tour on notice. She was head and shoulders above her competition in college, and there’s no reason to believe she can’t be just as dominant on tour.

Zhang has the potential to be not just the best player on the LPGA Tour but a transcendent superstar capable of elevating the women’s game. Herzig wrote on Twitter that crowds had begun following Zhang from hole to hole the way people do with Tiger Woods. Michael Rosenberg put it best when he wrote after Zhang’s first pro round, “The more that people watch Rose Zhang, the more they will want to watch her. As her fan base grows, so will the sport.”

The best of Sports Illustrated

Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports

• Tom Verducci’s story from Friday on how money can’t buy victories for the Mets is even more relevant after their meltdown yesterday against the Phillies.
• Alex Miceli was in London for this weekend’s Cubs-Cardinals series.
• Rohan Nadkarni spoke with Dwyane Wade about his relationship with another Heat legend: Udonis Haslem.
• In his MMQB, Albert Breer writes that Commanders fans can finally begin celebrating the arrival of a new owner.
• The Suns are reportedly planning to hold on to center Deandre Ayton.
• Alabama basketball star Jahvon Quinerly will enter the transfer portal.
• Rory McIlroy had harsh words for TPC River Highlands, the Connecticut course that hosted this weekend’s Travelers Championship.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Florida pitcher Hurston Waldrep’s changeup grip.

4. DJ LeMahieu’s off-balance throw from third.

3. Pete Alonso’s opposite-field line-drive home run.

2. Florida outfielder Ty Evans’s home run with a rare 51-degree launch angle.

1. Reds rookie Matt McLain’s four extra-base hits in a single game.

SIQ

What was the nickname of Hall of Fame Negro Leagues outfielder Willard Brown, who was born on this day in 1915?

• Big Bad
• Downtown
• Boomer
• Home Run

Friday’s SIQ: On June 23, 1994, which pitcher, the father of a current major leaguer, was denied a perfect game by an umpiring mistake similar to the one Jim Joyce made in Armando Galarraga’s 2010 perfect game bid?

• Steve Bedrosian
• Bobby Witt
• Roger Clemens
• Mark Leiter

Answer: Bobby Witt. He was pitching for the A’s, coincidentally against the Royals, where his son, Bobby Jr., currently plays.

The game was the best of Witt’s career by a wide margin. He threw 11 complete-game shutouts, but in all of the other 10 he allowed at least four baserunners. In that game against Kansas City, though, Witt struck out 14, walked none and allowed just one hit.

But the hit really shouldn’t have been a hit. In the sixth inning, Greg Gagne hit a grounder to first base. Troy Neel fielded and threw to Witt, who was covering the base. First-base umpire Gary Cederstrom ruled that Gagne won the race to the bag. Television replays showed otherwise.

“Obviously, by the replays, the man is out at first,” Witt said after the game. “I think he missed the call. But there’s nothing I can do about it now, and I can’t speak out about it.”

Because it occurred in the sixth and not with two outs in the ninth, Witt’s near-perfecto isn’t as famous as Galarraga’s, but it still bothers him.

“I think about it,” Witt told The Mercury News in 2010 after the Galarraga game. “You see a perfect game, like when [Roy] Halladay did it, and you start thinking, ‘What if? What if?’”