{"id":759757,"date":"2026-06-25T07:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T07:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/759757\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T07:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T07:38:08","slug":"deng-signals-promise-in-major-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/759757\/","title":{"rendered":"Deng signals promise in major debut\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"Amateur Aphrodite Deng, 16, was one of five amateurs to make the cut at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open. Ryan Sirius Sun, Getty Images<\/p>\n

PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA | Sixteen-year-old Aphrodite Deng didn\u2019t look like someone playing in her first major championship at the recent U.S. Women\u2019s Open at Riviera Country Club. She certainly didn\u2019t look like someone who\u2019s received only three years of golf instruction. Instead of appearing overwhelmed, Deng looked comfortable, confident and composed. There\u2019s little doubt she\u2019s a player to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just focused on not overthinking it,\u201d Deng said. \u201cIf I play my best I can compete with the pros out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deng, the reigning U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior champion, lived up to her words at Riviera. One of five amateurs who made the cut, she finished T17 at even par for the championship, eight strokes behind winner Nelly Korda.<\/p>\n

Deng is the No. 2 girl in the Rolex AJGA Rankings, trailing only Asterisk Talley, whom she topped by two strokes at Riviera. In addition to winning the 2025 U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior at Atlanta Athletic Club, she won the AJGA tournament played in conjunction with the LPGA\u2019s Mizuho Americas Open for the second consecutive year in May. She has made the cut in all three LPGA events in which she has competed, and as the AJGA\u2019s 2025 Rolex Junior Player of the Year she earned an exemption into another major, next month\u2019s Evian Championship, which means she won\u2019t defend her title in the concurrent U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of success in a relatively short time, and it\u2019s notable given that Deng didn\u2019t start out as a golfer. From ages 5 to 9, she was a competitive figure skater.<\/p>\n

\u201cIce skating has helped me a little bit with my swing,\u201d Deng said. \u201cThe jumping made me a little more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deng, whose parents are from China, was born in Calgary, Alberta, and remains a Canadian citizen despite growing up in Short Hills, New Jersey. Her parents recognized her athletic potential early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought her to the ice rink when she was around 5 and she started jumping and doing double axels inside a year,\u201d said her mother, Nova. \u201cShe learned really quickly and it was the same way with golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

During COVID-19, Deng\u2019s access to indoor rinks became limited. Nova wanted her daughter to find an outdoor activity outside where she didn\u2019t have to wear a mask. Golf offered that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe found that golf was really fun and enjoyed nature outside on the golf course,\u201d Nova said.<\/p>\n

Her natural athleticism, boosted by years of figure skating, was clearly apparent. \u201cShe could jump and rotate,\u201d Todd Anderson said. \u201cSo it was about teaching her the fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Deng was 13, her family began spending time in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a short drive from TPC Sawgrass. There she met Todd Anderson, director of instruction at the resort\u2019s PGA Tour Performance Center, who has taught tour players such as Billy Horschel and Rose Zhang.<\/p>\n

Anderson first observed Deng on the range. \u201cOne of my students was there and he said, \u2018Hey, I know you\u2019re not taking any students but this girl is pretty good,\u2019\u201d Anderson recalled.<\/p>\n

Anderson said that after watching just three swings, he wanted to work with her. Her natural athleticism, boosted by years of figure skating, was clearly apparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe could jump and rotate,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cSo it was about teaching her the fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Deng said after winning the U.S. Girls Junior, \u201cI\u2019m pretty consistent and I\u2019m pretty good.\u201d Ryan Sirius Sun, Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Deng isn\u2019t just a natural talent. She\u2019s also a hard worker. Anderson compares her to Zhang, a former amateur standout and two-time LPGA Tour winner whom Deng played with during the first two rounds of the U.S. Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a lot of Rose in the drive that they both have to be great, the work they put in and their mentality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Deng\u2019s talent and hard work translated quickly into winning. At 13 she won the 2023 AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions. The next year, she won Korda\u2019s Nelly Invitational. In the first half of 2025, Deng won the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and the AJGA Mizuho Americas Open.<\/p>\n

But her big breakthrough came last July at Atlanta Athletic Club, where Deng won the U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior, defeating Singapore\u2019s Xingtong Chen, 2 and 1, in the final, thereby becoming the championship\u2019s first Canadian winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that I\u2019m pretty consistent and I\u2019m pretty good,\u201d Deng said after winning in Atlanta. \u201cI think that I stay pretty calm in front of a crowd and cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deng\u2019s victory earned her an exemption into the 2026 U.S. Women\u2019s Open. Before competing at Riviera, she made her LPGA debut at the 2025 CPKC Women\u2019s Open in Canada, where she finished T20. In April, she finished T38 at the LPGA\u2019s JM Eagle LA Championship<\/p>\n

At Riviera, Deng hovered near the top of the leaderboard for much of the first round and before posting a 1-under 70, a better score than the top three players in the world: Korda, Jeeno Thitikul and Hyo Joo Kim, who have 37 LPGA victories between them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my game is in a great spot. But there\u2019s obviously a lot of places I can still improve on.\u201d \u2013 Aphrodite Deng<\/p>\n

Following her every step of the way were Nova and her father, Chengyao.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell all the hard work she put in,\u201d Nova said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing. I\u2019m just really proud of her. I just want her to be mentally strong. That\u2019s very important because golf is a long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

With subsequent rounds of 73-68, Deng was just outside the top 10 entering Sunday\u2019s final round. She closed with a 73.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my game is in a great spot,\u201d Deng said. \u201cBut there\u2019s obviously a lot of places I can still improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting and short game are areas in which Deng has room to improve, Anderson said. But the instructor recognizes her upside potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see the hard work pay off,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cShe\u2019s going to get bigger and stronger and be able to hit more shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 Global Golf Post LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amateur Aphrodite Deng, 16, was one of five amateurs to make the cut at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[57153,49,48,622,164175,82,270818,11504],"class_list":["post-759757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aphrodite-deng","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-riviera-country-club","tag-sports","tag-u-s-womens-open","tag-usga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}