Stanford’s Rachel Heck points to experience in second Augusta National Women’s Amateur

When Rachel Heck teed it up at Augusta National Golf Club for the first time last year, her eyes were wide open.

With arguably the quote of the 2021 tournament, she recalled an exchange with her father and caddie from Friday’s practice round, when they mentioned the idea of laying up when it made sense.

“Are you kidding me,” she said, laughing. “I’m trying to have fun here. I’m playing Augusta National. I want to go for it.”

Fast forward to this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where the Stanford sophomore has entered the event as the reigning NCAA champion and is using that experience to narrow her focus this week.

“I think it’s really nice having seen the courses before,” she said. “I know what I’m getting into, and I know the pressure is going to be a lot these first two days because everyone of course wants to make it to Augusta. Having handled that pressure before is really important.”

She used that experience in Wednesday’s opening round, shooting 73 at Champions Retreat for a tie for ninth. She used back-to-back birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 to get back to even par for the day before a closing bogey.

“I had a good little run on the back nine. I had a really good par save on 11, got up and down from that bunker, made a good 5-footer for par on 12, then made two 15-footers on 13 and 14,” she said. “It was really good to get the momentum going because in the round I hadn’t had a whole lot drop. I was feeling a little frustrated with where my score is at. It was good to have a few birdies in there.”