Stanford’s Heck on a roll, dreaming big
No player in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open arrived on more of a roll than Stanford’s Rachel Heck. She has teed it up seven times in competition since early April. She won all seven times.
This is not to suggest Heck will hoist the trophy Sunday at the Olympic Club — she just finished her freshman season and these are the world’s best players — but her crazyhot streak distinguishes her from the pack. So does Heck’s military ambition.
That’s an uncommon passion for an elite golfer, but Heck became intrigued when she began dating Sam Killebrew in high school in Memphis. Killebrew, one year ahead of Heck, recently completed his second year at West Point.
As Killebrew prepared to leave for college, Heck found herself learning about military history and tradition. She realized it made her simmering frustration over bad golf shots seem foolish, and it gave her a passion beyond the number she scribbled on a scorecard after playing 18 holes.
“I had so much admiration and respect for everyone who served,” Heck said. “It’s such a lifestyle of hard work, discipline and integrity, and I really wanted to incorporate
that into my life. I thought it would make me a better person.”
So that’s how the eventual NCAA individual champion and national player of the year ended up in the Air Force ROTC program as a college freshman. Heck, 19, often woke at 4 a.m. to attend training sessions at San Jose State.
She missed a few Stanford golf workouts because of her ROTC obligations, and arrived late for one practice, but she made sure to clear her absences and tardiness with coach Anne Walker in advance. Walker was struck by Heck’s lack of entitlement, and her interest in balancing academics, golf and ROTC.
The lessons Heck learned, not to mention the strength gleaned from all those pushups, translated to golf. Walker said the military’s leadership and teamwork principles — if one person falls, the whole team falls; if one person rises, the whole team rises — were reflected in Heck’s demeanor around her teammates.
“She’s the first person on the team to give someone else kudos for anything small, even finishing a drill first,” Walker said. “Her humility shines through: It’s always about the team. She’s one of the most gracious winners I’ve ever been around.”
Heck’s fascination with the Air Force might not end soon. She has until about this time next year to decide whether to commit herself to complete the ROTC program, which would include a minimum of five years of Air Force service after college graduation. (Heck insisted she plans to stay at Stanford for four years, rather than turn pro early.) Therein lies the dilemma. Heck hopes it’s feasible to juggle an LPGA career and military obligation — she’s not willing to give up golf entirely — because the Air Force has a program for professional athletes. She could serve in the Air Force Reserve one weekend each month, she said, and periodically get deployed for two or three months. So it would impact her schedule if she’s playing on tour, no question.
Her dad, Robert Heck, supports Rachel’s interest in the military — he savored his junior ROTC experience in high school — but acknowledged he’s not sure if a lengthy Air Force commitment would work for a tour pro. Robert Heck said he needs to learn more about the details.
Either way, he sees the positive impact on his daughter.
“Four years ago, golf was the only thing that was important to her,” Robert Heck said. “She felt a lot of pressure playing golf. It was the only thing she could picture herself doing in life. … Now she has a lot of things that she realizes are important, including ROTC and the military.”
Robert will fill an important role this week, as Rachel’s caddie on her journeys around the Olympic Club’s hilly and demanding Lake Course. No pressure, Dad, but the kid shows up trying to extend a Tigerlike roll.
Heck hasn’t finished anywhere but first place since she tied for third in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur on April 3. She then won five consecutive college events, including the
Pac12, NCAA regional and NCAA individual championships. Heck became the first Stanford women’s golfer to win the national title.
This torrid stretch included another notable victory: She shot 66 amid rugged, chilly conditions to win a oneday tournament at the Lake Course, site of this Women’s Open. Heck also earned medalist honors in Open qualifying at Marin Country Club and won her match in Stanford’s quarterfinal loss of the NCAA team championships.
Now the stakes are higher and the odds are longer at the Olympic Club. Do not expect Heck to become intimidated by the setting: She already has played in three majors, making the cut at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open (at age 15) and the ’18 Evian Championship.
As was the case in those events, she will lean on her dad, an orthopedic surgeon and avid golfer, for oncourse guidance and friendly conversation. They both agreed he will not need to calm her nerves; if anything, it will be the other way around.
“I can tell he gets really stressed,” Rachel said.
Or, as Robert said, “My days on her bag are numbered. I have only a few more events like this before she moves on and gets a real caddie.”