ARDMORE, Pa. – There comes a time when an elite player must learn to handle the noise.
For Illinois senior Max Herendeen, that’s been the last eight months or so.
After two All-American seasons for the Illini, a deep run at last summer’s U.S. Amateur and strong fall semester as a junior with three top-5s, Herendeen asserted himself as one of the best amateurs in the world. That bred attention, which bred expectations, and the Bellevue, Washington native, for the first time in his life, had to face them.
Initially, he failed.
“There were too many negative thoughts, and I wasn’t holding myself accountable to my thinking,” Herendeen said. “This game is already so hard, but it’s especially hard when you have this negative aura around you. That’s what I had every day at practice; I wasn’t bringing positive energy to myself and my teammates. I had one bad tournament and everything just spiraled.”
Herendeen tied for 58th at the Patriot All-America, a winter amateur event, then shared 23rd at the shortened Jones Cup before returning to school and finishing 44th or worse in three straight starts. The pressure of needing to play well – for himself, for his team, for accolades, for supporters and sponsors – became unbearable, causing Herendeen to lose his confidence and his game, especially off the tee and with the putter.
That’s when Illinois head coach Mike Small called Herendeen into his office and delivered some tough news: Herendeen wouldn’t be part of the starting lineup for the Oregon Duck Invitational.
“In the moment, I didn’t appreciate it at all, and I was really frustrated,” Herendeen said.
Added Small: “I believe in Max. I believe in what he can do. So as a coach, you have to believe that he can handle the adversity and the negative aspect of being sat down for a week to recalibrate. Some people, they could spiral out of control and go away. That wasn’t him, so I wasn’t worried about that.
“I knew deep down in my soul that he was going to be OK.”
Herendeen went out that week and won, though he still wasn’t out of the woods yet. He reverted to finishing outside the top 35 in two consecutive tournaments leading into the Big Ten Championship.
Then he had dinner with Korn Ferry Tour pro Jackson Buchanan, who was in town to see his girlfriend and had been struggling as well.
“We were sulking together,” Herendeen said. “And then we both looked at each other like, ‘What are we doing?’ We’re playing golf – he’s playing golf for a living, I’m playing golf at Illinois; this is what we dreamed about. It just snapped right there for both of us.”
Combined with a putter change from a double-wide blade to a mini version of the Ping Craz-E mallet, Herendeen started to compete with a clear, positive mind. His results quickly followed, as he placed third at conference, T-19 at NCAA regionals, T-8 at the Northeast, and reached the Sweet 16 at the Western Amateur.
Herendeen admits he put himself behind the eight-ball in terms of the Walker Cup, though his 7-and-6 victory over another Walker Cup hopeful Carson Bertagnole in Thursday morning’s Round of 32 at the U.S. Amateur has him back on the U.S. team’s radar. Against the North Carolina sophomore, Herendeen didn’t miss a fairway, a day after closing out his first-round match on the 13th hole.
“This is how the whole thing started,” Small said when asked about Herendeen’s Walker Cup prospects. “You don’t play golf to make a team. You don’t play golf to get all these benefits. You play golf to play good that day, to see how good you can be and to win that event that you’re in right there. … He’s trying to make the Walker Cup team a year away, he’s trying to make PGA Tour U a year away instead of taking business what he has to do that single day.
“My case for him is to go play good right now.”
Added Herendeen, who faces Texas Tech's Adam Bresnu in the Round of 16 on Thursday afternoon: “I know I can make this team, and I can help this team. I probably have to go win this week to have a chance, but I think I can do it.”