Chambana Sun

Three members of the University of Illinois men's golf team have been named to the Big Ten's 2025-26 Preseason Honors list. Senior Ryan Voois and juniors Max Herendeen and Dane Huddleston received recognition from the conference on Wednesday.

Voois and Herendeen return to the team after earning First Team All-Big Ten honors last season. Huddleston, a transfer from Utah Valley, was recognized as the 2024-25 WAC Golfer of the Year. Both Herendeen and Huddleston were named GCAA PING All-America Honorable Mention last season, while Voois earned All-Midwest Region honors and was selected as an Academic All-American.

All three golfers finished last season ranked among the top 80 in NCAA Division I Men's Golf individual rankings: Herendeen at 38, Huddleston at 52, and Voois at 79.

Herendeen was also included this week on the Haskins Award Preseason Watch List. He is a two-time PING All-American, earning second team honors in 2024, and is noted as the first Illini golfer since Charlie Danielson to achieve back-to-back All-America honors from the GCAA during his freshman and sophomore years. "The Bellevue, Wash., product advanced to the final round of stroke play at the 2025 NCAA Championship and closed the year with a team-best average of 70.85 and the team's top head-to-head record at 1023-179-28 (.843). Herendeen tied for the team lead with 14 rounds in the 60s and boasted two of the team's three lowest individual rounds of the year with a 63 (-7) in the final round to place fifth at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate before matching that score to tie the opening-round record at the B1G Championship. His best finish of the season came at the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational where he tied for the lead with a 204 (-12) before finishing second in a playoff for medalist honors."

Herendeen enters his junior year following a summer that included his PGA TOUR debut at the 3M Open, along with appearances in match play at both the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur tournaments. He has reached No. 17 in World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Huddleston transferred to Illinois after one of NCAA history's most successful individual seasons while competing for Utah Valley University (UVU). In his sophomore year, he played all regular-season tournaments, won five titles including WAC Championship, finished fifth individually at NCAA Reno Regional—one shot away from advancing further—and became UVU’s all-time leader in career victories. His five wins are fourth-most in a single NCAA Division I season; only Jay Don Blake (Utah State), Tiger Woods (Stanford), and Matt Hill (NC State) have recorded more tournament wins in one season.

As a freshman during 2023-24, Huddleston competed in every tournament for UVU with a leading scoring average of 71.84 and earned First Team All-WAC honors. Over his time there, he played in 66 rounds across 23 events with an average score of 70.68.

Voois continued his progress as a junior finance major last season by ranking third on Illinois’ roster with a career-best stroke average of 71.64. He led or shared top finishes for Illinois across four tournaments: tying for sixth at OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational; tying for twenty-first against strong competition at Southern Highlands Collegiate; placing third to help secure victory at Memphis Intercollegiate; and finishing second as Illinois shared an NCAA Urbana Regional title. He had fourteen rounds below seventy strokes and eleven top-25 finishes—both matching Herendeen’s totals—and posted twenty-five rounds at par or better.

During summer competitions, Voois placed fourth at Sunnehanna Amateur, achieved top-twenty results at Northeast Amateur Invitational (19th) and Southern Amateur Championship (16th), then joined Herendeen again during match play action at U.S. Amateur.

Illinois will begin its new season by hosting its annual collegiate event—the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational—September 19–21 at Olympia Fields Country Club.