Rachel Heck heads back to Augusta National after graduating from military training school

Rachel Heck graduated from the military's Defense Information School on Thursday at the top of her class. A public affairs officer in the Air Force Reserve, the Stanford grad took a 10-week break from her full-time job as an analyst for KKR in San Francisco to take the course at Fort Meade in Maryland. She also spent a little time at the Pentagon.

"It's just nice to know I'm in the right place, and I'm not totally lost," Heck said of being a distinguished honors graduate.

And now, the second lieutenant heads back to California, where she'll report to the office Monday and begin to cram for her fourth August National Women's Amateur appearance. The event, which begins April 2, will mark her first time competing since last May, when she helped Stanford clinch its second NCAA title in three years.

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Heck first qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 15 and, as a hotshot junior, suffered a back injury that left her sidelined from the game. Without golf, she felt lost, and during a period of darkness, decided that she wanted to pursue the Air Force ROTC to find something more. Heck’s parents told her she was crazy, but she persisted.

As a freshman at Stanford, with dreams of playing on the LPGA and serving in the Air Force on full throttle, Heck set an NCAA scoring record (69.72) en route to sweeping the postseason.

She won six times in nine starts at Stanford in 2021, including her last five events. Heck became the third player in NCAA history to sweep the postseason, winning the Pac-12 Championship, NCAA regionals and nationals. She posted 15 of 25 rounds in the 60s, including 12 consecutive.

But, as her college career progressed, more injuries followed. She eventually decided that chasing U.S. Women's Open trophies and the LPGA Hall of Fame was no longer a dream, and passed on LPGA Q-School for a job in private equity. She does still, however, plan to keep competing as an amateur, taking full advantage of her 2025 exemption into the U.S. Women's Amateur at Bandon Dunes this summer.

"I love that she’s chosen her own way," said Heck's mom, Stacy, "whether we all saw the vision that she saw right away or not. She’s taken us on this incredible journey."

Golfweek caught up with Heck after her most recent graduation to talk about life after Stanford, Augusta National and future plans. What follows are excerpts from that conversation:

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Right now I'm in the process of trying to figure out where I'll actually be stationed, but for the time being, I'm going to be at the entertainment liaison office in Los Angeles, which advises on movie sets. So you see like 'Iron Man' and 'Captain Marvel,' the entertainment liaison office had a hand in that to make sure everything in the military is depicted accurately. But I actually won't be there for super long. I'm still trying to navigate, but my position's a little bit weird since I'm in IMA, which is Individual Mobilization Augmentee. It's kind of like its reserves, but even more flexible.

I had big ambitions for practice (in Maryland). I have my clubs in the closet. I probably ended up practicing, I think three times, so not a lot, but that's OK. The way I see it, I have like a week. I go back to work on Monday to my analyst job, so I'm going to try to get out a little bit early or just find find a driving range there to get some last-minute cram sessions.

I've gone into tournaments with no practice and played great. I've practiced every day and played horrible. So golf is a weird game in that you just don't know what's going to happen. I've definitely played tournaments without a lot of practice beforehand, but I think this is definitely the most extreme case because I like really haven't played golf since nationals. So I definitely have a new perspective coming into this because other times when I haven't played in a long time, I get to play again. I'm starting my road back to playing more tournaments, back to competing all the time.

But this just feels a lot different to me because, I don't know, it really just feels like something I get to do. Like I've worked super hard learning a new industry, learning, you know, how to be an officer in the Air Force. And now I get to go take a week and play Augusta National. It's just a totally new perspective. I have very low expectations for how I'm going to play. And this is, frankly, the first of my life where I truly don't care about my performance, which is awesome. It's a really good feeling. Like I'm just excited to get back the next week and tell my co-workers all about Augusta.

Rachel Heck of the United States plays her stroke from the No. 12 tee during a practice round for the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 5, 2024. Thomas Lovelock/Augusta National

I honestly was very confident in my decision, but it's hard to tell how you're going to feel once, you know, my peers do go pro. Seeing them do that and seeing them compete, frankly, there has not been a moment where I have second-guessed my decision at all. I absolutely loved cheering them on, seeing my friends like, you know, Sadie (Englemann) and Lauren Miller working their way up on the mini tours, all the way to Karl (Vilips) and Michael (Thorbjornsen) and the PGA. Like, I'm just their biggest fan ever, but seeing them do that, I just realize l absolutely love where I am, and there's truly not a part of me that that wishes I was out there on tour, which is, you know, it's hard to make those decisions. It was hard to make that initial decision, but I feel just more confident than I ever have in it.

Rachel Heck of the Stanford Cardinal celebrates winning the individual medalist during the Division I Women's Golf Championship held at the Grayhawk Golf Club on May 24, 2021 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The (NCAA) trophies are in Tennessee right now. My dad loves to have his beer after work and look at them, but they will reside with me when I have a more permanent home. I've kind of been all over the past year. I was home for a few weeks in Memphis, and then I was in New York for a couple months, and then I was in San Francisco for a couple months, and then I've been here for a couple months. So I haven't had a good place to keep them. I will have to pry them out of his hands when the time comes.

Rachel Heck of the Stanford Cardinal, right celebrates ahead of Katie Villegas of the UCLA Bruins after winning the NCAA Women's Golf Division I Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on May 22, 2024 in Carlsbad, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

But, I mean, thinking back on that week, I think about it every day, honestly. I just don't know how I got so fortunate because it truly does just feel like a fairy-tale, and there's, you know, there's so many times in golf, there's a lot of highs and lows and I've spent many years not getting to, not really riding the highs, like moving on to the next one, being proud of myself and moving on. But I get to ride this high literally the rest of my life because that was it for me. That was that was the end of my golf career as I knew it, and to be able to to go out like that and run into my teammate's arms. I mean, that's that is the moment that you dream about.

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During a commissioning ceremony in the military, you always get loved ones or people of been super impactful in your life to pin on your lieutenant bars. And so it was just so special to have my mom and Dr. (Condoleezza) Rice pin those on. She played, I mean, she's such a wonderful mentor to me. She played such a big role in my Air Force career. I remember I met her when I was 15 on my very first visit to Stanford, and I was so nervous. We sat down for 30 minutes and my parents were freaking out. I was freaking out and she was telling me her story of how she grew up knowing that she was going to be a concert pianist, and that's what she was absolutely positive that she wanted to do, no doubt about it. And then one day she stepped into an international relations class and fell in love with it. And I was like, that is such a cool story, but I know I'm going to be a golfer.

So we see how that turned out.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rachel Heck heads to Augusta National after military training school

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