Why not? If the LPGA has learned to celebrate its deep and diverse talent pool, one that has produced zero repeat winners among this season’s 23 tournament champions, it also knows there is nothing like a breakout star (Caitlin Clark, cough, cough) to catapult a league (WNBA, cough, cough) to the forefront of a crowded sports landscape.

In 2023, Zhang arrived as if on cue, her debut anticipated as anyone since her mentor and friend Michelle Wie turned pro in 2005. And when Zhang announced that presence with such authority, winning her initial LPGA appearance at the Mizuho Americas Open, a feat women’s golf hadn’t seen in 72 years, or ending Nelly Korda’s record-setting seven-tournament win streak a year later at Cognizant Founders Cup, her ascending star showed no hint of falling.

But sports, like life, often has other plans. The 22-year-old Zhang who arrived in Massachusetts for the FM Championship at TPC Boston is very different from the one who burst onto the scene two years ago. As the calendar turns the corner toward fall, Zhang looks back at a year filled with adversity she never saw coming, at an interrupted, injury-marred season of golf unlike anything she’s ever dealt with before.

“I will say it hasn’t been very easy, but it’s something that I would do all over again, even though it’s quite painful,” Zhang said Saturday morning, a conversation that came after she’d finished off a rain-delayed second round with a field-best 64, before a stellar third round 67 put her in a tie for second place. With four back-nine birdies following a birdie to close out the front nine, Zhang (15 under) is three behind leader Miranda Wang, a close friend who will be her playing partner in Sunday’s final pairing.

Because sports, like life, regularly allows us to take those “other plans” and turn them into something bigger, and better.

“This is a day where I will remember what I did for a long while,” Zhang said. “Sometimes you just have to take a step back and take in the positives. Obviously we’re going to go out there tomorrow and try to make more positives, but regardless, I’ll look back on today and just have a little bit more momentum.

“I think honestly it’s been a while since I’ve been in contention, so I’m very, very grateful.”

See, Zhang played almost no golf from January to March this year as she chose to go back to Stanford, living near campus and taking a full course load toward her degree in communications, one she hopes to finish next winter. While nursing a minor hand injury that dated to the end of the 2024 season, she then sustained an injury upon returning to play the last weekend of March in Arizona.

“Coming out of winter quarter I took 22 [class] units, it kind of took a toll on my body,” she said. “Then I had neck spasms on both sides of my shoulders, so as a result I was two months immobile, barely moving. Obviously that doesn’t help your golf game because you can’t even walk properly.”

No wonder she values the smaller steps above all else. The moments like the 35-foot putt she made as darkness swallowed the last of the four holes she was able to play Friday, the tournament-low second round she finished off Saturday morning, or the Round 3 final birdie on 18 that led to a huge smile and hug with her caddie. These are the important steps on the road back to consistency.

It’s been a mixed bag since her injury, with the world’s 56th-ranked golfer (she ended 2024 No. 14) missing the cut in five tournaments (including last week in Canada) but finishing as high as T-16 (Portland), and T-10 (Orlando) in others.

“I think the patience and the dedication that it takes to come back from all that, and then also I expected myself to play really right out the bat of post injury, obviously that’s very unrealistic and kind of messes with the mental a little bit,” she said. “That’s kind of the struggle that I endured. I think now it’s as simple as sticking to the process and making sure you’re getting little bits of positivity in there.”

She is a reminder of how quickly life on tour moves, and how much the ups and downs define the journey. It seems particularly true in women’s golf, where new young stars pop up with regularity. While Zhang resets, Lottie Woad has crashed the party, Nelly Korda makes every cut and Jeeno Thitikul took over the No. 1 ranking. Women’s golf is an ever-turning carousel, and Zhang is trying to stay on the ride, living proof that for all the heady joy of early success, there isn’t much room to move but down.

“I would say this year is the first time I really hit a hard struggle in my entire golf career,” she said. “I think the [past] success helps in that you know that it’s in you, but it also might hinder your look to the present and the future, just because you expect way too much out of yourself in your circumstance. So I think I’m navigating that, and it’s helped me grow as a person and even as a player.”

Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.