Stanford's Heck holds on to claim individual crown on a day of NCAA Championship drama at Grayhawk

    Stanford cruised to the top seed in qualifying for match play in the NCAA Championship Monday at Grayhawk Golf Club’s Raptor Course.

   Not a huge surprise since the Cardinal have landed among the top eight that make up the match-play bracket every year since the match-play layer was added to the NCAA Championship in 2015.

   What is a little different, though, is that Stanford will be led by the NCAA individual champion as Rachel Heck, a freshman from Memphis, Tenn., became the first Cardinal to win the gold medal in the history of the program, which is pretty unbelievable considering the amount of talent that has flowed through the pipeline in northern California.

   Heck is a freshman, but it’s not like she hasn’t been in big spots before. She dominated the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) during a glittering junior career and was the AJGA’s Rolex Player of the Year in 2017. That same year, as a 15-year-old, Heck made the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. and played the weekend.

   The coronavirus pandemic cut into Heck’s competitive opportunities in 2020, but she was still sharp enough to win medalist honors in qualifying for match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md. The pandemic delayed the start of Heck’s college career as the Pac-12 wouldn’t let its golf teams compete last fall. But Heck arrived in Scottsdale after winning the Pac-12 individual crown and the individual title in the Stanford Regional, both on her home course at the Stanford Golf Course.

   Heck took a five-shot lead in the individual standings into Monday’s final round, but it isn’t always easy to protect a big lead like that, especially in such a talented field.

   UCLA’s Emma Spitz, a sophomore from Austria and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR, posting a 7-under 281 total after firing a sparkling final round of 4-under 68 over the 6,337-yard, par-72 Raptor Course layout.

   But Heck grinded out pars on her last six holes to card a 2-over 74 in the final round that left her with an 8-under 280 total and a one-shot margin of victory over Spitz.

   Heck and Spitz were two of the six players who finished in a tie for third place in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship in early April.

   Stanford, No. 6 in the latest Golfstat rankings, had its worst team round of the tournament, an 8-over 296 in Monday’s final round, but still finished with a 10-under 1,142 total, 13 shots clear of runnerup Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion and ranked No. 2.

   The Blue Devils, winner of the last NCAA Championship contested in 2019 at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., closed with a solid 1-over 289 to finish in second place with a 3-over 1,155 total.

   As usual, the drama on the final day of match-play qualifying came in the battles for the last couple of spots in the match-play bracket and who would finish in a tie for seventh place at 21-over 1,173 and earn the last two match-play berths but the two Arizona teams, No. 10 Arizona State and No. 22 Arizona.

   The Sun Devils struggled a little in the final round, closing with a 7-over 295 while the Wildcats posted a solid 3-over 291 in the final round.

   For all of Stanford’s postseason success, the Cardinal haven’t won an NCAA title since the first year match play was added to the mix in 2015. The two most recent national champions out of the Pac-12 are Arizona State in 2017 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. and Arizona in 2018 at the Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.

   Stanford will draw Arizona in the quarterfinals Tuesday, a rematch of the Cardinal’s stunning semifinal setback at the hands of the Wildcats in 2018 at Karsten Creek. None of the players in the Stanford lineup were on that 2018 team, which will leave it up to Anne Walker, the Margot and Mitch Milias director of women’s golf at Stanford, to describe the sting felt by the program that day to her players.

   That leaves the Dookies with a quarterfinal matchup with Arizona State.

   Another quarterfinal will pit a pair of conference champions as No. 7 Oklahoma State, the Big 12 champion, will take on No.15 Auburn, the Southeastern Conference champion.

   The Cowgirls closed with a solid 6-under 282 to finish in third place, two shots behind Duke with a 5-over 1,157 total.

   Some team well outside the top eight going into the final round makes a giant final-round move to earn a match-play berth every year and Monday that team was Auburn. The Tigers, the Plainsmen, the War Eagles – you’d have to have listened to the late, great Keith Jackson call an Auburn football game to understand – surged to a 10-under 278 Monday to finish in sixth place with an 18-over 1,170 total.

   You’d have to think the match-play gauntlet Auburn survived to win the SEC title will make it a tough out in the quarterfinals.

   Another SEC entry, No. 5 Mississippi, will get another Big 12 entry, No. 17 Texas, in the fourth quarterfinal in a rematch of an East Lake Cup semifinal at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta last fall won by Ole Miss. The Longhorns, however, were without Agathe Laisne, their senior standout from France who did not come back across the pond until it was time to tee it up in the U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in December.

   All of that havoc, Laisne staying in France for the fall and the U.S. Women’s Open in December were courtesy, of course, of the pandemic.

   Ole Miss was solid in Monday’s final round with a 4-under 284 that nailed down fourth place, at 7-over 1,159, two shots behind Oklahoma State. Texas finished up with a 3-over 291 to end up two shots behind Ole Miss with a 9-over 1,161 total.

   There were some really good teams that won’t be involved in match play Tuesday. No. 3 LSU, out of the SEC, posted 22-over over 1,174 early and looked on helplessly as nobody came back to the Bayou Tigers. ACC runnerup Florida State, ranked ninth, was one of the last teams on the course and had its chances, but closed with a 5-over 293 that left the Seminoles tied for ninth place with LSU at 22-over 1,174, one lousy, stinking shot away from forcing a three-way playoff with Arizona and Arizona State for the final two match-play berths.

   No. 4 Wake Forest, another ACC entry, looked like the best team in the country for long stretches of the spring, but the Demon Deacons could not get it going in Monday’s final round and their 10-over 298 left them in 12^th place with a 26-over 1,178 total.

   Backing up Heck for Stanford was Angelina Ye, a sophomore from China and No. 22 in the Women’s WAGR. Ye, winner of the 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis., was Heck’s closest pursuer going into Monday’s final round. Her 1-under 71 left her a shot behind UCLA’s Spitz in third place with a 6-under 282 total.

   Brooke Seay, a sophomore from San Diego, struggled a little in the final round, but landed in the group tied for 20^th place at 3-over 291 for the Cardinal. Aline Krauter, a junior from Germany and No. 47 in the Women’s WAGR, also had a 76 in the final round to join the group tied for 44^th place with a 7-over 295. Krauter was the winner of The Women’s Amateur Championship last summer at West Lancashire.

   Rounding out the Stanford lineup was Sadie Englemann, a freshman from Austin, Texas who closed with a counting 3-over 75 to finish in a tie for 49^th place with an 8-over 296 total.

   Arizona State’s Ashley Menne, a freshman from Surprise, Ariz., matched par in the final round to finish three shots behind Stanford’s Ye in fourth place with a 3-under 285 total.

   Duke’s Gina Kim, a junior from Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 40 in the Women’s WAGR, and freshman Phoebe Brinker, a Wilmington, Del. native and Archmere Academy product, were two of the four players tied for fifth place, a shot behind Menne at 2-under 216.

   Kim was in the starting lineup when the Blue Devils edged Wake Forest, 3-2, in the Final Match at The Blessings two springs ago. She finished up with a 1-over 73.

   It was nice to see Brinker get some air time during The Golf Channel’s broadcast of the NCAA Championship. The niece of Suzy Whaley, the first woman president of the PGA of America, Brinker made a birdie at the 18^th hole for a 1-under 71.

   Joining Kim and Brinker in the foursome at 2-under were Ole Miss’ Julia Johnson, a fifth-year senior from St. Gabriel, La. and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR, and Michigan’s Hailey Borja, a sophomore from Lake Forest, Calif. Johnson, always the picture of consistency, ripped off her third straight 1-under 71 while Borja made a big move up the leaderboard with a final round of 4-under 68.

   Rounding out the top 10 was a trio tied for ninth place at even-par 288 led by Florida State’s Beatrice Wallin, a junior from Sweden and No. 9 in the Women’s WAGR. Wallin closed with a sparkling 4-under 68, but it wasn’t quite enough to drag the Seminoles across the finish line and into the match-play bracket.

   Three other Swedes ranked higher than Wallin in the Women’s WAGR, Arizona State sophomore Linn Grant (No. 2), LSU sophomore Ingrid Lindblad (No. 3) and Oklahoma State sophomore Maja Stark (No. 7), were in the field at Grayhawk and Wallin beat them all in 72 holes of stroke play.

   Rounding out the trio at even-par were Denver’s Anna Zanusso, a sophomore from Italy, and Virginia’s Beth Lillie, a senior from Fullerton, Calif. Zanusso closed with her second straight 2-under 70 while Lillie also finished up with a 2-under 70 to get into the top 10. And there’s no downplaying a top-10 finish in this national championship against outstanding players from all over the world.

   Pretty sure The Golf Channel is going to check in on the quarterfinal matches Tuesday morning and again with the semifinals in the afternoon. By the end of the day only two teams will remain with a shot at a national championship.