Colors can portray a lot about an individual’s personality: Blue can be cool, red can be fiery. Peyton White, Ohio’s top golfer, is more gray — calm, collected and hardly cocky.
“Golf is such a cool game because there is no such thing as perfection,” White said. “It’s impossible to master and there’s always something in your game you can improve on. I absolutely love working at it.”
The numbers White has produced as a freshman this year speak for themselves. He’s posted two top-10 and four top-20 finishes, been named the Mid-American Conference golfer of the week twice, and has obtained the role of Ohio’s No. 1 golfer.
But even though hard work on the fairway has paid off for the Huntersville, N.C., native, he’s still not completely content with his performance.
“To be honest, I think him being too humble is somewhat of a flaw in his game,” said Erik Herberth, White’s high school coach. “In his junior year of high school he would’ve probably said he had no shot playing in college. In sports, you have to be cocky at times and recognize that you’re better than the other player, and I think that is something he is continuing to figure out.”
Herberth, who played for Ohio coach Bob Cooley for the Bobcats from 1997 to 2002, set every major program record during his four-season tenure in Athens. He had a 64-stroke round against Xavier in 2001 and averaged 72.17 strokes per round as a junior that season.
Herberth became White’s swing coach in 2008 and, since then, has fueled White’s ambition to eclipse his 12-year-old records.
“Yeah, I want to be one of the best ever,” White said. “My coach back at home (Herberth) was one of the best Ohio ever had and I want to break all those records.”
Herberth believes White could surpass them by the conclusion of this season.
“He isn’t joking when he says he wants to break those records,” Herberth said with a laugh. “I know he has all them pinned up in his dorm room and is checking them off as he attempts to beat them.”
White has averaged 74 strokes per round in his six collegiate tournaments and has shot a team-best second-round 68 during the Wolf Run Intercollegiate this fall.
“It’s a process, really,” White said of improving his game. “You don’t go out there to just break records, you go out there and just try to play your best round. I just try to stay humble throughout it all, and it’s really something that keeps me working harder.”
That hard work, Cooley said, has been paying dividends for the young golfer.
“He’s got a lot of goals he is still working on,” Cooley said. “He’s already got a very good golf swing, but he is trying getting better every single day.”
Cooley said he and Herberth collectively push White to maintain a high work ethic, despite the fact Herberth insists White has all the drive he needs to push himself to be the best.
“His mental attitude on the course is one of his greatest attributes,” Herberth said. “Even when I was his coach, he was constantly working at his fundamentals and was constantly seeking improvement.”
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This article originally appeared in print under the headline "An ace in the hole."
