Heck widens individual lead, helps Stanford land atop the leaderboard in NCAA Championship at Grayhawk

    Some of Rachel Heck’s fellow competitors were probably hoping that the back-to-back victories that the Stanford freshman out of Memphis, Tenn. registered in the Pac-12 Championship and the NCAA Stanford Regional were just a function of Heck playing on her home course, the Stanford Golf Course.

   No such luck. Heck, No. 25 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), had grabbed the lead in the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championship with a 3-under-par 69 in Friday’s opening round at Grayhawk Golf Club. Saturday, Heck threatened to turn the battle for the NCAA individual title into a runaway as she added a 5-under 67 over the 6,307-yard, par-72 Grayhawk layout to take a five-shot lead at the midway point with an 8-under 136 total.

   Heck led the way as the Cardinal, No. 6 in the latest Golfstat rankings, fired a 10-under 278 to take a four-shot lead over No. 2 Duke, the winner of the last NCAA Championship contested in 2019 at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. Combined with its opening-round 291, it gave Stanford, out of the Pac-12, a 7-under 569 total.

   Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, added a 7-under 281 to its opening round of 4-over 292 as the Blue Devils were in second place with a 3-under 572 total. No. 17 Texas, out of the Big 12, had taken the opening-round lead with a 1-over 289 before matching par with a 288 in Saturday’s second round and was alone in third place with a 1-over 577 total.

   No. 9 Florida State, the runnerup to Duke in the ACC’s match-play final and an impressive winner of last week’s Louisville Regional, made its move with a 3-under 285 that enabled the Seminoles to land in fourth place, six shots behind Texas with a 7-over 583 total. Florida State had opened with a 10-over 298.

   No. 4 Wake Forest, which lost to Duke in the Final Match two years ago at The Blessings, gave the ACC three teams in the top five as the Demon Deacons added a 5-over 293 to their opening-round 292 to end up in fifth place with a 9-over 585 total, two shots behind Florida State.

   No. 7 Oklahoma State, the Big 12 champion, stood a shot behind Wake Forest in sixth place with a 10-over 586 as the Cowgirls added a 1-over 289 to their opening-round 297.

   A couple of Southeastern Conference entries, No. 5 Mississippi and No. 3 LSU, were next in the team standings, the Rebels in seventh place with an 11-over 587 total and the Bayou Tigers in eighth at 12-over 588. Ole Miss and LSU were two of the teams that advanced out of the ill-fated Baton Rouge Regional without hitting a shot as relentless rains forced the tournament to be cancelled. It was ruled that the top six seeds would advance to the NCAA Championship.

   Two more Pac-12 entries, No. 22 Arizona and No. 13 Oregon, rounded out the top 10 after two rounds as they were tied for ninth place, each landing on 14-over 590, two shots behind LSU. The Wildcats added a 10-over 298 to their opening-round 292 and the Ducks, who had landed in second place with their opening round of 2-over 290, cooled off with a 300.

   There will be a cut to the top 15 teams and the top nine individuals not from an advancing team following Sunday’s third round. The Golf Channel will broadcast Monday’s final round, during which an individual champion will be crowned and the surviving 15 teams will battle for the eight spots in the match-play bracket with match play getting under way Tuesday.

   Heck, who was the qualifying medalist in last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md., started off the 10^th tee in Saturday’s second round and ripped off birdies at the 12th, 14^th, 17^th and 18^th holes to get it to 4-under heading for the front nine.

   Heck stumbled briefly with her only bogey of the round at the first hole, but righted the ship with birdies at the third and seventh holes to get it in at 5-under for the round and 8-under for the championship, five shots clear of Duke’s Gina Kim, a junior from Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 54 in the Women’s WAGR, and Louisville’s Lauren Hartlage, a graduate student from Elizabethtown, Ky. and No. 91 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Backing up Heck for the Cardinal was Sadie Englemann, another freshman from Austin, Texas who added a 1-over 73 to her opening-round 72 that left her among the group tied for 17^th place at 1-over 145.

   The rest of the young and talented Stanford lineup all ended up among the group tied for 23^rd place at 2-over 146.

   Angelina Ye, a sophomore from China and No. 24 in the Women’s WAGR, fired a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round after opening with a 77. Ye captured the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 2019 at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis.

   Brooke Seay, a sophomore from San Diego, added a solid 1-under 71 to her opening-round 75. Seay capped her stellar career in the junior ranks with a 1-up loss to her future Stanford teammate Ye in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior at SentryWorld. It was the sixth U.S. Girls’ Junior in which Seay competed.

   And the veteran of the group, Aline Krauter, a junior from Germany and No. 36 in the Women’s WAGR, she, too, added a 1-under 71 to her opening-round 75. All Krauter did last summer was claim a win in The Women’s Amateur Championship at West Lancashire.

   Duke’s Kim matched Heck’s 5-under 67 after opening with a 74 to get her share of second place at 3-under 141. Less than two weeks after helping the Blue Devils capture the 2019 national championship at The Blessings, Kim was on the leaderboard the whole way in the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston before setting for a tie for 12^th place and low-amateur honors.

   Offered an opportunity for a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA to make up for the spring of her senior season stolen by the coronavirus pandemic, Louisville’s Hartlage grabbed it and here she is contending for an NCAA title. Hartlage added a 4-under 68 to her opening-round73 to join Kim in the tie for second place at 3-under.

   UCLA’s Emma Spitz, a sophomore from Austria, added a 2-under 70 to her opening-round 72 and was alone in fourth place at 2-under 142. Spitz is coming off an impressive individual victory in the Louisville Regional as she dusted the field by five shots at the University of Louisville Golf Club.

   Spitz and Heck were two of the six players to finish in a tie for third place in last month’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.

   Two of Kim’s Duke teammates, Jaravee Boonchant, a senior from Thailand, and Phoebe Brinker, the Archmere Academy product from Wilmington, Del. who is putting together a wonderful freshman season, were part of the six-player logjam tied for fifth place at 1-under 143.

   Boonchant, like Kim, was in the starting lineup for the Blue Devils in the Final Match at The Blessings in 2019. She added a 1-under 71 to her opening-round 72. Brinker, who has been huge all spring in the pandemic-delayed start to her rookie season, carded a 2-under 70 after opening with a 73.

   Rounding out the group at 1-under were Texas’ Sophie Guo, a sophomore from Orlando, Fla. and No. 64 in the Women’s WAGR, Oklahoma State’s Lianna Bailey, a junior from England, Arizona’s Ya Chun Chang, a junior from Taiwan, and Oregon’s Briana Chacon, a sophomore from Whittier, Calif.

   Guo added a 2-under 70 to her opening-round 73, Bailey moved into contention with a sparkling 3-under 69 after she had opened with a 74, Chang, like Guo, added a 2-under 70 to her opening-round 73 and Chacon matched par with a 72 after opening with a 1-under 71.