How did the Stanford women respond to their first loss of the season? They broke an NCAA record.
Led by their superstar one-two punch of Rachel Heck and Rose Zhang, the Cardinal won the Gunrock Invitational on Tuesday in Sacramento, California, by shooting 50 under, four shots lower than the previous NCAA best of 46 under set by LSU last April. In the process, Stanford finished 35 shots better than runner-up Washington while Heck notched the eighth victory of her young college career with a record-breaking performance of her own.
“I don’t even have words for this,” Stanford head coach Anne Walker said. “It’s so exciting and this team deserves it. … It feels great to bounce back.”
A week ago in San Diego, Stanford saw its chances at just the second unbeaten season in women’s college golf history end at the hands of its neighbor to the east, San Jose State, which orchestrated a masterful final round in difficult conditions to clip the Cardinal by three shots. Walker attributed her team’s performance to some rust and inability to take advantage from 100 yards and in, but when the Cardinal returned home following the event, they immediately got to work at the team’s practice facility – dialing in wedges, short game, lots of putting.
Their perfect season may have been over, but they weren’t going to dwell on it.
“I don’t we took it as hard as maybe other people took it because we felt like we still played really well and we beat a lot of great teams, and San Jose State deserved to win that,” Walker said. “So, I don’t know that we walked away feeling like we lost anything. One thing we’ve been talking a lot about this year is keeping perspective that in the game of golf you lose more than you win. … Our sport is really unique that way, so every time we are winning, we don’t want to be thinking that’s the way it goes because it isn’t the way it goes, so we need to keep working, we need to keep grinding, we need to keep chugging along knowing that there can only be one winner each week and you have to be the most prepared if you want to have a shot at that.”
This week the most prepared team was Stanford – by far. In 54 holes, the Cardinal counted just 13 bogeys and one double bogey. Six players finished in the top 16, including Brooke Seay, who tied for fifth as an individual. Zhang, who won all three of her fall tournaments before a T-4 last week, shot 14 under to finish second by three shots over third-place Riana Mission of San Francisco.
Heck was four shots better than Zhang, using an opening-round 63 to spark an 18-under winning total that marked a program best and third lowest total in NCAA history. The reigning Annika Award winner, who won six times last season while sweeping the postseason, now has won back-to-back events to open the spring. (She is one victory shy of matching Andrea Lee’s program wins record.)
Hear from Coach Walker after her team’s record-setting performance at the Gunrock Invitational! #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/AAGAZXeNyr
— Stanford Women's Golf (@StanfordWGolf) March 1, 2022
Tuesday’s win was also her second at Del Paso Country Club, where Heck captured her first college title last spring. Walker notices a “more mature, more relaxed, more polished” Heck this time around.
Heck also is more energized.
Not only did she balance adjusting to college with her breakout freshman spring (and the demands that come with being college golf’s newest darling), but she went straight into summer golf – U.S. Women’s Open, two LPGA events, a run to the U.S. Amateur semifinals and the Curtis Cup. She played just twice for the Cardinal last fall, notching a best finish of T-10, and then capped her busy year by playing the Spirit International in early November. Add in NIL – Heck signed with Excel Sports and has since inked several endorsement deals – and Air Force ROTC obligations and there was little time to unplug.
“She was exhausted,” Walker said. “There were so many moving parts in Rachel Heck’s life. So much came at her and she handled it like a champion, but there’s fatigue that goes with that, and I think by maybe about October it became very apparent to me and Rachel that all she needed was a break.”
After the Spirit, Heck put the clubs away for six weeks.
“Her tank is full again,” Walker said.
The same could be said of Stanford, which after a minor roadblock is again traveling full speed ahead toward Grayhawk.
