The Tiger Woods of women's golf is making her pro debut, and she's already off to a hot start

• Rose Zhang is a women's golf superstar who has drawn comparisons to the one and only Tiger Woods.
• The 20-year-old made her highly anticipated LPGA debut after 141 weeks as the top-ranked amateur.

Tiger Woods set the standard for kicking off an illustrious golf career.

Nearly three decades later, Rose Zhang is breaking that mold.

As a Stanford Cardinal standout, Woods matched a school record by winning 11 tournaments over his two-year college tenure. Zhang broke that longstanding record in the same span.

Now, like Woods did 27 years ago, Zhang is embarking on a highly-anticipated professional career. Coming off back-to-back NCAA individual national titles — an unprecedented feat in the women's game and one that Woods did not accomplish on the men's side — the 20-year-old Arcadia, California, native walked away from 141 weeks as World Amateur Golf's top-ranked player to compete in the LPGA.

And Zhang is already off to a hot start in the pros.

On Thursday, she teed off at the Mizuho Americas Open at New Jersey's Liberty National Golf Course for her first professional tournament. In a field consisting of 120 of the greatest women's golf players on the planet, Zhang finished her opening round among the top 15 in the tournament.

She capped off Day 1 with a bang — well, a birdie — to finish two under par and five strokes back from the lead.

Zhang still has three more rounds to go with a whopping $2,750,000 purse on the line. But if her opening day is any indication, she's right where she belongs in the LPGA.