Chambana Sun

Illinois men's golf team has secured a significant addition to its roster with the signing of Dane Huddleston, announced by head coach Mike Small. Huddleston will join the Fighting Illini for the 2025-26 season as a junior transfer from Utah Valley University (UVU), where he had an impressive two-year tenure.

Huddleston arrives at Illinois after being named the 2025 WAC Golfer of the Year. His sophomore year at UVU was marked by outstanding achievements, including five individual tournament victories, one of which was the WAC Championship. He also placed fifth at the NCAA Reno Regional, narrowly missing advancement to the NCAA Championship. With these accomplishments, Huddleston became UVU's all-time leader in career wins and achieved one of the most successful individual seasons in NCAA Division I history.

In his freshman year during 2023-24, Huddleston competed in all tournaments for UVU with a leading scoring average of 71.84 and earned First Team All-WAC honors. Over his time at Utah Valley, he played 66 rounds across 23 events with an overall scoring average of 70.68.

Huddleston joins another new recruit, Dujuan Snyman, as part of Illinois' efforts to strengthen their team for upcoming competitions.

"The deciding factor for me to come to Illinois was Coach Small and the rest of the coaching staff, along with practice facilities that I believe are the best in the country!" said Huddleston regarding his decision to transfer.

Coach Small expressed enthusiasm about Huddleston's arrival: "We are extremely excited to welcome Dane to the Illini golf family! Dane has clearly shown that he has the talent and ability to be a big-time collegiate player. He showed this past season that he can consistently win and compete at a high level and that he is very comfortable at the top of the leaderboard. Dane's personality, work ethic, and skill will fit in perfectly here at Illinois, and our entire program is fired up to have him join us next fall."