Heffner, a scratch golfer who will soon graduate from North Raleigh Christian Academy, played varsity golf for the Knights all four years of high school. He either played as a one or two seed for the last three years and started as a five seed as a freshman.

But his golfing career began long before high school, even grade school. He said he can’t really remember when he picked up the sticks for the first time, but thinks he was around the age of 2 when he swung his first swing. Heffner would follow his dad to the old driving range in Knightdale near Milburnie Road, and going became a habit. Home schooled through middle school, he was able to make time to play when it wasn’t always there for those in the public sector.

Heading from home school to a private, 3-A school might not have been the biggest shift, but there was one big difference — NRCA had a golf team awaiting his presence.

“The tryouts might be easier since there aren’t as many people coming out as there are at public schools, but maintaining a high seed is where that changes,” Heffner said. He said although Knight golf coach Robert Hodges doesn’t really play the team into positions by level of play, Heffner has played at a two seed all through his senior year, despite being the most consistent player in the lineup.

In the fall he will leave the comfort of his home course, River Ridge Golf Club, for Wingate and he said he’s excited to do so.

Heffner really took the university seriously in late April of last year after his high school English teacher urged him to consider checking it out. He took his teacher’s word and visited the campus twice this year, once in January and once in early April.

“The campus has a nice layout, the buildings are spaced out, so everything had a real natural look to it,” he said. “It’s kind of away from the city life.”

That’s not a surprising comment coming from someone who enjoys spending most of their free time on the golf course. Heffner spends on average four days on the golf course during the week, for about two hours each day.

“Except for Saturday," he said. “I’m normally there all day on Saturday."

On his January visit to the university he met head golf coach Dr. Jerry Surratt. Heffner said he’s a nice guy with a good personality and is easy to talk to.

“He seemed like he was pretty interested in me playing golf on his team,” Heffner said.

But the golf program isn’t where his scholarship money will come from — that will be strictly via academics. Heffner will graduate high school with a 3.95 GPA, and with only one AP class on his back.

Joining the Wingate squad, his hopes are to be on the varsity team, but more importantly to be an active member on the varsity team.

“You just kind of take it one round at a time. You just want to play each round for that round,” he said. Heffner said the plan is to major in chemistry and do whatever seems interesting from there on — noting, unlike most people, he finds chemistry “easy.”

Teammates next year, Heffner and Denton already know each other. Heffner said the two played a lot of golf between the ages of 11-13 — the twosome would play every day at Wendell Country Club, which is the first course Heffner ever actually played. He said the two may room together the first year at Wingate.

Heffner finished his high school golf career in the 3A private school state finals at The Champions Course at Bryan Park on May 11-12. He fired 80-74 over the two days to tie others in the field for a top-20 finish.

He’s played in 10 National Junior Golf Club tourneys and was the Central North Carolina points champion in 2007, gathering the most points by way of most consistent finishes over the course of the summer season.

Last summer he played in the N.C. Junior and finished in the top 16 after three rounds of play. Round one is stroke play, and the three rounds that follow are match play, so he was one of the last 16 of the 97 golfers that competed in the event.

The only event Heffner has scheduled for this summer at this point is this year’s N.C. Junior, to be held June 16-19 at Henderson Country Club.