A Heck of a finish as Stanford tops UCLA to claim a third national championship at La Costa

 

   Anne Walker, the Margot and Mitch Malias director of women’s golf at Stanford, chose to put senior Rachel Heck in the anchor spot for Wednesday’s Final Match of the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course because where else would you put your team’s anchor?

   When Heck, out of Memphis, Tenn. and No. 45 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), was still recovering from the removal of a rib to relieve her thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms during the fall portion of the wraparound 2023-2024 season, Stanford was a very good team. With a fully healthy Heck back in the lineup in time for this spring’s postseason, Stanford was a great team, a national championship team.

   When a last-ditch birdie try by UCLA’s Katie Villegas, a senior from Arcadia, Calif., raced by the cup on the 15^th hole of the 6,297-yard, par-72 North Course layout, Heck had a 4 and 3 victory and Stanford had its third national championship, all since 2015.

   Stanford was a national champion once again because with Heck, the Cardinal were anchored.

   Earlier this spring, Heck let the world know, via a letter to the No Laying Up website, that she wasn’t planning to play professional golf. She’s going to have an internship with a private equity firm and will be commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force after completing the Air Force ROTC program at Stanford.

   All of which allowed a healthy Heck to focus on the final months of her college career. It had begun with a fantastic freshman season when Heck was the NCAA’s individual champion in 2021.

   A person with a less clear vision of herself might have been threatened by the arrival the following year of a shooting star in Rose Zhang. Instead they became partners in an inevitable romp to an NCAA team crown in 2022.

   Watched Heck and Zhang, a month or so removed from that national championship run, rip off three straight birdies as alternate-shot partners in a Curtis Cup foursome match that turned a 1-down deficit into a 2-up advantage at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course. It was surgical.

   Heck was turned into mostly a cheerleader a year ago when the Zhang-led Cardinal saw their bid for a second straight title derailed by Pac-12 rival Southern California in the semifinals.

   But there was Heck joyously embracing and being embraced by her teammates after she closed out her spectacular career with a second team crown with Stanford. Talent matters a lot at this level, but leadership matters, too, and in Heck, the Cardinal were led by a consummate leader.

   Heck had Villegas dormie, 4-down with four to play, on the 15^th hole at the North Course. When Heck safely lagged a putt up over a ledge for a gimmee par, Walker knew it was over.

   “That is Rachel Heck for you,” Walker told the Stanford website. “She deserves that, but it’s also like it was scripted for her that way. I’m kind of not surprised and she is a heck of a lag putter. For anyone else to be in that front left part of the green, it would haven a little tough. But for Rachel to roll it so close, it was great.

   “It wasn’t by accident we decided to put Rachel in that last spot. She is a mature kid and it takes a lot to rattle her.”

   Kelly Xu, a sophomore from Claremont, Calif. and No. 55 in the Women’s WAGR, put the first point on the board for Stanford with a methodical 4 and 3 victory over Meghan Royal, a sophomore playing not far from her Carlsbad, Calif. home.

   It capped a 3-0 run in two days of high-leverage match play by Xu.

   Megha Ganne, the supremely talented sophomore from Holmdel, N.J. and No. 38 in the Women’s WAGR, then closed out a 3 and 2 victory over Natalie Vo, a junior from San Jose, Calif.

   But UCLA, coming off an impressive sweep through Texas A&M and Pac-12 rival Oregon in the quarterfinals and the semifinals, respectively, a day earlier, wasn’t going anywhere.

   Zoe Antoniette Campos, a junior from Valencia, Calif. and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR, has been good for UCLA from Day 1 of this 2023-’24 season. Campos put a point on the board for the Bruins with a 4 and 2 victory over Sadie Englemann, a senior from Austin, Texas and No. 50 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Up ahead, Campos’ teammate, Caroline Canales, a junior from Calabassas, Calif., had the lead over Paula Martin Sampedro, a freshman from Spain and No. 23 in the Women’s WAGR who has probably been Stanford’s best player all season.

   Canales was 1-up through 17 holes when Heck clinched it for Stanford and Canales was conceded a 2-up victory.

   But always in the back end of the five matches, Heck was in control. It seemed inevitable, but if you know anything about match play, the second those kinds of thoughts creep into your head, you’re in trouble.

   You never can tell if Stanford’s talented youngsters will still be amateur golfers when the NCAA Championship returns to La Costa a year from now, but a nucleus of Ganne, Xu and Martin Sampedro would seem to be a good place to start from for the Cardinal.

   Of course, Stanford will be in the Atlantic Coast Conference by then and UCLA in the Big Ten and doesn’t that sound strange?

   It was a very good week for a proud Pac-12 that is about to disintegrate before our eyes.

   Fortunately for us golf geeks, golf is different than football. The four Pac-12 teams that comprised the semifinals this week at La Costa -- Stanford, UCLA, Southern California and Oregon – will still be competing against one another.

   And a bunch of them can hold a little reunion in the Southern California desert around this time next year. It won’t be surprising in the least to see some remnants of the Pac-12 battling for a national championship.