As an avid golfer, I could relate to Vance's love to play the game. I first met him at junior competitions and high school tournaments. During my senior high school year, the sectional qualifying for the state tournament was at Duke University. Vance was there as a high school sophomore and had an imaginative golf game. It rained hard that day at Duke, and half of one green was under water; the pin was located under the flood. All players were awarded an automatic two-putt once reaching the green but were allowed to attempt to make the first putt. My first try raced hard toward the hole only to stop short once it hit the water in front of the cup. Vance played it differently, striking the ball with a wedge, hitting from a part of the green not under water, sending it through the air and holing out in the cup surrounded and covered with water. Birdie!
In 1974, Vance was a college sophomore and a rising star on the Wolfpack golf team. I was in my first of four senior years and was sports editor of the Technician, the student newspaper, and I covered the golf team. That spring, Vance tied for the individual title in two intercollegiate events, the Big Four Tournament and the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, both within a week of each other. Following are the articles I wrote about Vance after each of his wins:
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Technician / April 17, 1974
Heafner comes through for State golf
By Jim Pomeranz
Vance Heafner started playing golf at the very young age of seven, to his best recollection.
He began beating the little white ball around local golf links in the early 1960s and has progressed from a real true to life “duffer” to one of the Wolfpack’s and the ACC’s top golfers.
It was approximately in 1968 that the Cary resident began his conquest of an individual golf title. That was the year, at the age of 14, that Heafner began playing competitive golf.
It was not until just last year, though, that the then State freshman won his first crown. That was the Raleigh City Amateur tournament.
But, now there is another feather to add to his cap.
For the past week, the blond-headed golfer has been competing along with six other Wolfpack golfers and those from the other Big Four schools in the annual four-round gathering of the North Carolina ACC institutions.
And even though Wake Forest won the team crown 32 strokes ahead of second place State, 2083-2115, Heafner played well enough over four different courses to pace the Wolfpack and take home a tie for the top spot. He shared the individual honors with the Deacons’ David Thore.
Carolina finished third with 2154, and Duke held down last place at 2199.
The first round, played at the Deacons’ home course of Olde Town Country Club, saw Heafner fire a one over par 73 and fall three shots back of first place and teammate Ken Dye at 70.
The State sophomore had probably what was his best chance to shoot a sub-par round as the Big Four tournament moved to MacGregor Downs which is Heafner’s home course. But his attempt at par or better fell short by three strokes over the par 71 layout. Heafner’s 74 dropped him five shots back of the top spot then held by Thore.
Thore shot two consistent rounds of 72 and 70 in as many days and seemed on his way to first alone. But the Duke University Golf Course, one of the toughest courses in the state, got in his way. An even par round there could have almost assured him of “number one.”
Thore shot 75 over the par 71 course, and Heafner took advantage with a one under par 70.
“I played real good at Duke,” Heafner said. “It was one of the most solid rounds I’ve had all year. I hit the ball well, and I putted pretty good. I had two birdies and only one bogey, and that was on the last hole.”
So, headed into the final round at Carolina’s Finley Golf Course, Heafner and Thore recorded identical scores and a head-on match was set. But neither golfer could budge past the other. Each shot an even par 72 and tied for first place.
“At Carolina, I putted real good but didn’t hit it all that well,” Heafner explained. “I had two bogeys, and they were on the last two holes.”
Heafner played golf every day. And his excellent golf shows the practice.
“I play 18 holes about six out of seven days,” he said. “And I usually hit balls or practice putting on the other day.”
And his want to play a good game of golf has brought him to realize the necessity of participating in more than just local tournaments.
“I get better experience playing in bigger tournaments,” Heafner stated. This year as in past years the tall sophomore will play in the North-South tournament at Pinehurst and the Southern Amateur. He also plans to qualify for the Kemper Open in Charlotte and the U.S. Open.
Golfers, even though much of their ability is raw talent, have a coach. In Heafner’s case, as is also the case of the remainder of the State golf team, it’s Richard Sykes, a class A member of the professional Golf Association.
“He (Sykes) helps me if something mechanical in my swing is really wrong,” he explained. “But as far as telling me how to hit, he does not do that. He helps me a lot mentally. He builds confidence before a match.”
Last year Heafner averaged 76.1 strokes per round and just for the Big Four Tournament he averaged just over 72 strokes per course. So, with the ACC tournament scheduled April 22-24 at Sanford’s Carolina Trace rapidly approaching, the Wolfpack looks good in Vance Heafner for a top notch finish.
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Technician / April 26, 1974
Heafner achieves ‘greatest thrill ever’
By Jim Pomeranz
SANFORD—Vance Heafner was walking toward the eighteenth green in the final round of the annual ACC golf tournament here at Carolina Trace Wednesday. The State sophomore trailed Wake Forest golfer Bob Bynum by two shots before teeing off on the last hole and an individual title for the Wolfpack golfer seemed too far off to even consider.
Bynum had hit an incredible approach shot out from among some trees and was only 25 feet past the pin and just off the green. Heafner’s approach had come to rest pin high and only 20 feet away.
State golf coach Richard Sykes began to talk about the type of golf Heafner had played for the three day tourney.
“He’s played some pretty good golf. I’ll tell you that,” Sykes praised. “The turning point was that par five over there.”
Heafner had been just one shot behind Bynum and took a bogey on the sixteenth hole while the Deacon sank an eight-footer for birdie. But Heafner picked up a stroke on the individual tourney leader with a par on the seventeenth hole. And, picking up two more on the last hole seemed just too impossible.
“He’s had a pretty good week’s work with first in the Big Four and second in the ACC,” Sykes conceded.
But, Sykes was a little too fast with his words. Heafner sank his birdie putt, and Bynum missed a four-footer for par and co-champions were crowned for the single player title.
Wake Forest still won the tournament with a three day total of 1158. Carolina finished second at 1182 and the Wolfpack held down third place with 1187. Maryland, Clemson, Duke and Virginia, in that order, rounded out the field.
But State should still be very proud. Proud for Heafner. He was the complete story for the Wolfpack.
“It has got to be the greatest thrill I’ve ever had,” the tall blond smiled. “I thought I would have to make two on the last hole to win.”
But he didn’t have to eagle the 408 yard long hole; birdie was just enough. It was one of the few holes Heafner had finished under par for the whole tournament. His three rounds of 74-76-74 were some of the toughest he had played in quite a while.
“It was a real good test of golf,” he said about the 7,007 yard long Trace layout, “but not under the conditions we played it. The ground was hard, and the greens were slick. It is too hard for a collegiate tourney. You play so much defensive golf here. The fairways are so hard that you just try to keep from hitting a bad shot instead of going after the good shot.”
During the whole tournament no one was able to shoot an even par round. Seventy-three was the tournament’s lowest score.
Since Sykes had been a little too fast with his words about the eventual winner, the third year coach soon changed his tune.
“I’m tickled to death,” he boasted. “Vance has turned out to be quite a player. He has just worked hard to get to where he is now. He was not the junior golfer that others have been. He has not known as much as other golfers. He’s worked hard with what he’s got, and he’s started being good. There’s really no telling just how good he’ll be, or how far he’ll go. I’ve kidded him in the past about dying fast when he sees the clubhouse. But this time he didn’t give up.”
The first two days of the tourney Heafner had bogeyed both of the last two holes, but on the final day he stuck right in there and finished with a great par and a great birdie. “He’ll be a lot tougher in the future,” Sykes predicted.
For his great finish, Heafner will most likely receive an invitation to play in the NCAAs, and there’s good reason for it. “What they want are the good players,” said Sykes. “And that’s what Vance is.”
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Vance Heafner was a good college golfer, especially in 1974, besting players like Wake Forest’s Curtis Strange and Jay Haas and UNC’s Skip Dunaway. Vance won the Carolinas Open professional tournament that year as an amateur. In 1977, he won the North Carolina Amateur, and, the same year, he played on the Walker Cup team, winning three matches in leading the United States to victory. He won other notable amateur competitions.
He worked his way to the professional level, chasing fame and fortune on the PGA Tour, the Nationwide Tour and the Champions Tour. Vance made the cut 157 times on the PGA Tour and won a PGA tour two-man team event. When he turned 50, health issues had slowed his ability to compete regularly. He had a solid, not great, professional golf career, and, all the while, he was never a member of the Professional Golf Association. He last professional golf job was as Director of Golf at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary NC.
As I write this, all we know is that Vance might have had a heart attack which might have been related to other health issues, lifetime health issues. He was just 58-years old. With many good friends looking out for him, giving him support, a place to live, and work, and to convalesce from a terrible fall that left him nearly unable to play the game he so much loved, Vance seemed to be on the road to recovery, maybe. His friends had high hope for him, but now he’s gone from us, leaving only memories, some good and some not so encouraging.
Like many athletes and non-athletes alike, even with lots of resources and a golfing ability many would love to have, Vance had demons in his life, and, unfortunately, he probably let them get the best of him; the demons were probably just too much. Maybe the demons finally won out with Vance. All that said, when I hear his name, I’ll not let the demons get in the way of what I recall about Vance Heafner. I’ll always remember those days in college, in 1974, when he played golf for NC State. And, he won. Back-to-back; one week to the next. The Big Four and the ACC. He was a winner, a good player. That’s the best kind of memory.
