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Week in The Life

Led by the duo of Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck, Stanford came into this season as the team to beat in women's college golf. Take an unprecedented look inside their program as they prepare and compete for an event title. 

Three down to USC’s Brianna Navarrosa in the semifinals of NCAA match play, Zhang was in an unusual spot when she arrived at the 14th green. Her approach had settled 20 feet away from the hole. Navarrosa had her against the ropes. Zhang looked exhausted, and Stanford — the defending champions — was on the verge of giving up back-to-back points.

Not so fast. She buried the putt for a birdie, a sign of life Stanford desperately needed. A rare reaction followed. Zhang smiled as she walked over to scoop up her ball.

The college career of the greatest amateur in history still had a heartbeat.


As Zhang continued onto the closing stretch, USC would go up in two matches and needed one last point to advance to the NCAA final. The defending champs had only one point on the board, leaving Zhang as the anchor match. When she and Navarrosa tied No. 15, suddenly, No. 16 at Grayhawk Golf Club became do or die.

All day, Navarrosa’s steely determination and ball-striking had put Zhang on the ropes

 But on the Par 3 16th, Zhang channeled something magical, hitting a gorgeous tee shot that landed softly and settled to three feet.


Navarrosa’s sat 10 feet away. Zhang looked like she was once again on the verge of something spectacular, something only she could conjure up. She had done this countless times throughout her career. But on this day, no putt seemed too big for Navarrosa, who never trailed in the match. The USC junior drained it with ease, and wouldn’t let up on 17th. The 157th-best player in the world closed out the No. 1-amateur in the world, 2&1.


Tear-stricken and emotionally exasperated, Zhang explained where she went wrong. “Everything caught up to me, the fatigue…when I was dialing in my yardages, trying to figure out my swing, nothing was going well. Felt like everything was a little bit of blur.”

The match was over – and so was Rose Zhang’s amateur career.

Even before the result of the National Championship, I’d been dreading the day I had to write this story.


Not because I don’t want Rose Zhang to turn professional. I think it’s the natural next step. But because we’d have to speak about Rose Zhang’s amateur career in the past tense, and I know how lucky I’ve been to witness a GOAT in real-time.

When I found out Rose was turning professional, I wasn’t surprised. We were on a video shoot in Palo Alto, and she was talking about her plans. She wanted to relocate to Las Vegas and finish up her degree at Stanford. At 25, I envied this 19-year-old for myriad reasons, but mostly at how settled she was in these plans. There was zero fear of the future in the way she spoke. Instead, there was a deep sense of security in what she had, even if it wasn’t everything she wanted.

Her contentment would be tested a few months later when she almost unraveled in the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, a tournament she’d quietly coveted since its inception. But when she emerged victorious, it seemed like yet another obstacle overcome by the greatest amateur in history. Now, all that was left was to defend her NCAA title and try to lead an injury-riddled Stanford squad to a team championship.

First, she recaptured her own glory, becoming the only woman in NCAA history to do so. Then she ran out of gas, knocked off by the brilliant putting of Navarrosa, which felt like an abrupt end to the perfect story.

When she walked off the 17th green at Grayhawk Golf Club, still in a blur, she was met by Anne Walker, her coach and confidant for the last two years. The two shared a tearful embrace. A nearly 36-hole day after a week spent in desert golf will do that to a player. But so will a sudden end to a career that, in Zhang’s world, would have resulted in another team championship to the program that gave her so much.

“There’s somewhat of a soul-filtering process in the pool of people that qualify for Stanford athletics,” says Walker. “They already have some built-in soft skills. They’re hardwired to show up every day, be determined, be ambitious and give their all at whatever they’re doing.”

A 4.6 high school GPA and the No. 1-ranked amateur will make you a shoo-in at any golf program.  But there’s no guarantee that such a player will be successful. Unless you are Zhang and win immediately – and three in a row, at that. In two years, she won 12 times in 20 starts, eclipsing names like Tiger Woods, Maverick McNealy and Patrick Rodgers to become the winningest player in school history, and matching Lorena Ochoa’s feat. Out of all 20 events, a total of only 31 players would beat Zhang.

That would be an incredible career if it ended there. But the Rose Zhang experience did not exist in a collegiate vacuum. It started even before she even signed her letter of intent to Palo Alto when she downed defending U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Gabriela Ruffels with an injured left wrist. In the last year she was eligible, she won the U.S. Girls’ Junior in the summer preceding college – becoming the first person to win both in reverse order.


Then came the Tiger comparisons. The NIL deals. The media attention. A near-dizzying warp-speed ascent, she’d remain the de facto No. 1 for the rest of her college career. And on that trail she’d encounter multiple obstacles – burnout, injury (an unlucky weight landed on her left foot, leading to a wonky start to her freshman spring) and a long sought-out journey to independence.

“In college, you have to live on your own and make your own decisions,” she said weeks after winning her first NCAA individual title. “That was when I realized what was the most important thing for me, rather than having other people tell me what’s best for me.”

Much of Rose Zhang’s epic career has been illuminated by her time with the Cardinal, but as significant are the moments she has walked alone. Her renewed faith in Christianity led to her Baptism after her freshman year. The major starts, when she became that one amateur who hung around all week. Connecting deeper with her cultural background by taking Chinese classes. And in the final ride with the sisters she never had, she would hoist a championship trophy alone.


It’s deeply symbolic of Zhang’s transition into her new life. Had she decided to turn pro as the No. 1-ranked junior in her class, perhaps her trajectory would have looked much different. The trial run at “adulting,” if you will, was backed by two years full of fun, friends and hard lessons learned. It all feels so fast, but in the context of Zhang’s timeline, she took her sweet time dominating everything.

In what’s now the biggest decision of her entire life, Rose Zhang has some semblance of direction. She will make her first professional start at the Mizuho Americas Open, and spend her summer playing four majors and three professional events. By her side will be Jason Gilroyed, whose caddying resume spans Minjee Lee, Alison Lee and Cristie Kerr.

Where is the ceiling for the greatest amateur golfer of all time? That’s tough to say. But compared to the deep historical significance of Rose Zhang’s amateur career, this next chapter is equally as massive. And thanks to her, women’s golf and women’s amateur golf are in a better place than she found it.

Godspeed, Rose Zhang

It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and Stanford junior Rachel Heck is walking back to her dorm from her piano class – one she takes with her teammate, Caroline Sturdza. “We’re the only ones who don’t know what we’re doing,” she says, laughing. Right now, the class is learning Chopin in preparation for a performance in June. One of the best amateur golfers in the world is keeping busy these days, just not with golf.

This is one of the rare times, she claims, that she isn’t with her team, who are in Arizona fighting for a PAC-12 title. Instead of playing beside them, she’s refreshing Golfstat for the duration of this conversation. “Right now, I’m my team’s biggest fan,” she says. “I’m so nervous – they’re three back.”


Stanford’s number-one fan was once the team’s greatest contributor. Heck’s breakout freshman year amounted to a six-win season (the most single-season wins in program history) and won the NCAA individual title. In her sophomore year, she won two more times in a season interrupted by a bout with mono before she contributed to Stanford’s team title in 2022.

But for a second spring in a row, Heck has had to reprise her role as the Cardinal’s biggest cheerleader. This time, the culprit is thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition where the blood vessels or nerves in the space between the first rib and collarbone are compressed. As of now, there’s no timetable for her return.

 so it made up for everything,” Heck said of her absence in her sophomore year. “Learning I had to get surgery in February and that I was going to be out for an indefinite period of time, it’s hard to come to terms with. I’m a competitor. I want to be out there.”

The bubbly, positive demeanor she usually displays has been much harder to maintain. The physical scars on her body cut as deep as the emotional ones. Three months after Stanford won the National Championship, Heck was back at school gearing up for her junior year when she began to feel an uncomfortable sensation in her shoulder and neck. Whenever she played golf, her fingers would become numb, and the blood vessels in her hands would swell up. The pain was mostly localized to her hands, but simple tasks like cutting her food at dinner became unbearable.

One event, in particular, exposed the inevitable. Nearing the end of a round, Heck could barely grip her club. Her head coach, Anne Walker, began walking beside her when Heck burst into tears. She’d hooked and shanked her last two shots. “I can’t hold the club. I can’t do it,” she cried. Walker couldn’t bear to watch Heck continue. “Rachel, pick up the ball. Let’s be done.” Heck insisted on the opposite, scrapping together a steady end to her round – but a visit to the athletic trainer with few answers left her feeling despondent.

In the following months, the pain migrated to her elbow, shoulder, and then her neck. Desperate for relief, she started intense physical therapy and decided after Stanford’s home event that she would be done for the season. She noticed some slight improvement within a few months and opted to try playing again.

One week of dedicated practice only proved how much she’d fallen apart. She was worse off than before, and surgery became her only option. In order to live pain-free, Heck would need her rib removed in order to clear out space for her blood vessels and nerves.

The day before her operation, Heck was all alone while her best friends were competing at the Juli Inkster Meadow Club Invitational. Her mind was racing. She’d never had any type of surgery before, let alone a major one that required losing a rib. The season was just entering crunch time. She’d been reinstated into ROTC and was anticipating field training in Alabama after the National Championship. Now her entire future was in doubt.

Seeking peace, she ventured outdoors with her Bible in hand. Combing through passages, her worries quickly abated when she read through 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Heck has held onto those words since. “I felt God had me in his hands,” she said. And so did her people. After her surgery, her mother, Stacy, and Sturdza traded nurse duties – from driving her to class to bringing her medicine whenever she needed it.

A few weeks later, spring break arrived – a week she intended to spend at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The weight of everything was overwhelming.  She called home to Memphis in the middle of the night, bawling. The next morning, she was on a flight home.


“I think it's important for people to know that you can let yourself break,” Heck says. “It's important to let your soul process things, to be patient when you do have those breakdowns, and to seek out what you need, instead of bottling up and pretending that you don't need anything like at that moment.”

As broken as she felt,  Heck couldn’t stay from her team for very long. From Memphis, she followed Rose Zhang’s historic run at Augusta – and quickly realized she needed to be there. She booked a last-minute flight for Friday and was Zhang’s plus-one for the player dinner at Berckmans Place. The two friends watched Niall Horan perform, and it was then Heck understood this was where she was always meant to be.


When Saturday morning rolled around, she prayed with Zhang before her final round. She walked every single hole. She sat in the winner’s press conference, grinning ear to ear as Zhang gave her a heartfelt shoutout: “I’m so so inspired by her constant demeanor and her mindset on recovering and her ability to just have a positive outlook on things, even when things are very hard,” Zhang said. “No one knows what she’s actually going through except for herself.”

It was a cathartic moment. Only one week before, Rachel Heck had hit the panic button on life. Supporting her friend offered some much-needed perspective.  “I didn’t need to touch a club for that to be the best week of my life,” she said.

But the every day – the in-between – is the true battle.

It’s been nearly two months since her surgery. The rib now sits in her bathroom – with jokes of potentially making a keychain out of it to “freak people out.” She’s self-sufficient but is back to the grind of weekly physical therapy. Her golf is limited to putting practice – so her world is colored in things like the Memphis Grizzlies, a heavier academic schedule, and any ROTC training she physically can.

“It’s killing me not to have a certain progression timeline,” she says. But as she rehabs and waits, she’s vowed to be her team’s biggest (and most visible) fan. As it turns out, they have been thinking of her just as much as she is thinking of them. “We’re gonna step up for her,” says best friend and teammate Sadie Englemann. “She’s made everyone’s life so much better.” Englemann, whose college career has blossomed in the past few months, has assumed her best friend’s role in the lineup – even though she’d like nothing more than to be playing right beside her. As the No. 1 seed at the Pullman Regional, there’s an enormous target on the defending champions' backs, with plenty of teams eager to capitalize on Stanford’s injury-ridden lineup.

After a meteoric freshman year that saw her emerge as the best player in college golf, the past two years of Rachel Heck’s golf career have felt almost unfair. But her selflessness has shone through in the moments that don’t belong to her. She’s finding magic in what once might have been mundane. While she’s unaware of what’s ahead, she knows one thing for certain: “I can’t get caught up in making plans for myself and being distraught when they don’t work out.”

A Week in the Life: Stanford Women's Golf

Godspeed, Rose Zhang

Rachel Heck is still here, even if she's missing a piece of her

A Week in the Life: Stanford Women's Golf

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Godspeed, Rose Zhang

Rachel Heck is still here, even if she's missing a piece of her