The LPGA Tour’s inaugural Mizuho Americas Open, set to tee off tomorrow at Liberty National in Jersey City, feels like the dawn of a new era in Women’s golf.

The tournament not only marks the pro debut of Rose Zhang, a generational talent generating palpable buzz that rivals fellow ‘next big thing,’ athletes Victor Wembanyama and Connor Bedard, but features a unique format where 24 juniors will compete concurrently in an American Junior Golf Invitational that has the young women paired up with pros for the final two rounds.

Playing alongside LPGA players in the thick of competition provides a unique opportunity for juniors to preview the big show and learn firsthand how professionals handle big-time tournament pressure.

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“On a skill basis, they are not that far away. They hit the ball as long and putt the ball great,” Dan Fireman, president of Liberty National Golf Club and managing partner at Growcore Investments, explained.

But he feels what really separates the pros from high-level amateurs is course management and the top-level decision making prowess required to overcome the rigors of championship course conditions. He feels this is an area where they will reap the most benefit and he hopes they ask questions and tap into the expertise of the pros.

“I think they’re going to get just a mind-blowing experience as to how this could be them one day. I think if any of these LPGA pros had the opportunity to do the same thing it would’ve been something they would look back upon as a really awesome experience,” Fireman added.

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Beyond the competition itself, there is a comprehensive mentorship program running throughout the week matching each junior with an LPGA player. So there will be myriad opportunities for the juniors to connect with and pick pros’ brains.

Liberty National, where the glistening Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty loom in the backdrops of multiple holes, is no stranger to top tier golf, having hosted a Presidents Cup and the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs on four occasions. The private course has also hosted Cristie Kerr’s annual charity event benefiting her namesake Women’s Health Center at Jersey City Medical Center and had been looking to stage a professional Women’s event.

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“We are excited, we love the positioning that we can take this incredible golf site and leverage it in a way that elevates the LPGA and the AJGA. That is something we always dreamed of doing when we built Liberty National so we are proud to be associated with it and it is going to go on for the next three years. This is the inaugural one but we’re going to keep building on it,” Fireman added.

Title sponsor Mizuho Americas sprung for players to stay at the swanky Conrad hotel in downtown New York during the tournament week just steps from the ferry dock that will take them across NY harbor to the clubhouse. This is quite the perk in a sport where players are independent contractors and typically cover the cost of accommodations.

The idea of integrating a junior tournament into a pro event is a novel concept that arrives at a time when the golf industry has become very open to format experimentation from the coed team golf of December’s Grant Thornton Invitational to the Tiger and Rory backed simulator based TGL.

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Concocting a pro/junior combo event and tapping the recently retired Michelle Wie West for hosting duties was a carefully conceived endeavor. But having the world No. 1 amateur Rose Zhang whose 12 wins—the most in Stanford Cardinal history—choose to have her ‘hello world part 2’ moment and make her hotly anticipated pro debut at the Mizuho was just a stroke of dumb luck.

Fireman predicts Zhang, who has won pretty much every significant amateur trophy under the sun, including back-to-back individual NCAA Championship titles, will be a force to be reckoned with in the pro ranks right off the bat.

“Just listening to her speak at the press conference, it’s as if she’s been doing it for 20 years. It’s incredible how poised and calm she is. She has an enormous amount of confidence in herself and she’s very humble. She has an enormous opportunity to make a huge impact on women’s sports,” Fireman added.

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The American Junior Golf Association has just rebranded their Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant whose list of recipients includes Rose Zhang. The grant that provides financial assistance to young men and women aspiring to earn a college scholarship by competing on the national junior golf circuit has been renamed the Liberty National ACE Grant. The announcement follows a donation by the Paul & Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation that raises their total contributions to youth golf initiatives to over $12 million.

“We grew up playing golf, my father and I. My dad taught me and his dad taught him. We didn’t have the same financial difficulties that other players have but we love the game and we want to see it expanded and recognize that it is not an equal game. There are talented players that need financial assistance to further their career, whether that’s to play in local, regional, college or pro events. We’ve sponsored players individually we’ve known over the years to help them. To be able to do it with our foundation and our family behind it is something we will continue to do for the rest of our lives and to leverage Liberty National to do that is the perfect scenario for us,” Fireman explained.

He strongly believes getting golf clubs in the hands of more kids can make a difference in their lives and he’s witnessed the phenomenon firsthand again and again.

“I’ve learned so much from this game and I continue to learn—the relationships that I’ve made, the fun I’ve had and the places that I’ve seen. I think it’s something I want to give back to for the rest of my life,” he added.

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The Monday after the tournament, Liberty National will host the debut National ACE Grant Cup, a fundraising event benefitting the grant program.