Why did defending champion Rose Zhang withdraw from the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open?

The tournament's defending champion, Rose Zhang, withdrew from the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey. The reason behind her withdrawal is that she is suffering from sickness.

Zhang had a scheduled start for the first round of the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open from the back nine of Liberty National Golf Club. She played three holes of the back nine before calling it quits and withdrawing from the tournament due to illness.

Zhang carded in a par on the tenth hole and followed the next two with a double bogey and a par. She was favoured to win the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open following her win last week at the Cognizant Founders Cup where she defeated Nelly Korda to break her record-making winning streak.

Zhang's win at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open was her first LPGA Tour debut as a professional. That day, she also became the first player since 1951 to win a career start as a professional on the LPGA Tour.

The 20-year-old is scheduled to start next at the U.S. Women's Open from May 30 to June 2 at Lancaster Country Club, Pennsylvania to attempt to earn back-to-back titles.

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Rose Zhang's performance at the 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup

Rose Zhang won the 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club to take a share of the $3 million purse prize last week on May 12. Zhang made four birdies on the last five holes to shoot 66 and beat Madelene Sagstrom for the title as she was three shots behind the lead with the final five holes left to play.

Zhang told the LPGA Tour reflecting on her second LPGA title:

"Coming out here on (LPGA) Tour, there was a lot of expectations on me to perform, especially after what I did at Mizuho last year. Sometimes the noise did get to me a little bit, but I had such a good support group around me… But no matter what happened this week, I would've been very satisfied and it reignited my passion for the game once again."

20-year-old Rose Zhang ended World No. 1 Nelly Korda's history-making winning streak. Korda's win at the Cognizant Founders Cup would have made her the first player in the LPGA Tour's history to win five consecutive back-to-back events. Korda finished tied for seventh last week.

Rose Zhang's 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup moved her to 6th on the Rolex Official World Golf Rankings with 169.79 points earned throughout 25 events.