Illinois head coach Mike Small believes his senior and top player Jackson Buchanan is allowing the pressure of his final season of collegiate golf to be currently overwhelming.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 10, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.  — Illinois star player Jackson Buchanan says he finding inspirational quotes from Rory McIlroy in the hope of getting in a mental state before his final NCAA regional.

“Rory talks about chasing a feeling and I’m really trying to focus in on that,” Buchanan said.

While all of that sounds wonderful to be using the most recent lifetime Grand Slam champion to just slightly go from good to great or elite, the problems Illinois head coach Mike Small sees Buchanan currently exhibiting on and off the course are something the world’s No. 2 ranked player has never had to face in his career.

Before winning his first Masters Tournament this past April, McIlroy had 16 previous attempts at winning a green jacket in Augusta, Georgia. The Illini’s No. 1 player, who is currently No. 17 in the latest world amateur golf rankings and No. 12 in the PGA Tour University rankings, only has four chances to win in a college postseason before his eligibility runs out and as a senior, he’s in the midst of obviously his final season this spring.

As Buchanan approaches his final NCAA regional following a disappointing result in his final Big Ten Conference Championship event, Small would like nothing more than to see his top player relieve himself from all the pressures of being a veteran leader, a top player and the fact this is his last postseason effort as a member of the Illini men’s golf team.

“This happens to all athletes in all sports. It happened to me when I played (at Illinois). I had to relax and enjoy this…Sometimes you just get in your own way and that’s what happens to young players,” Small said Friday. “Kids that want it so badly, want to do well, almost feel the pressure more. Jackson is no different. He cares about this place. He wants to do well but people think in golf you should be good every single day, and your game will come and go. It makes our run so special over the years because if you play golf, you know your game will leave you for a week, two weeks, a month, six months.

And what might bother the 23-year-old Buchanan, who wasn’t born yet when Small took over the Illini men’s golf program in June 2000, is his head coach is likely accurate about what’s going on in his mind.

“I’ve always been one of those guys who doesn’t put too much pressure on myself or add expectations, but I’ve definitely felt it a little bit this year,” Buchanan said. “I think I’ve learned a lot about myself. The Big Ten Championship is something that you never think is going to happen, playing that bad, and then crumbling at the end. You never think that is going to happen and then it does, and it shocks you back to life where you go ‘whoa this is real life’ and just like last season I think there will be some things achieved this postseason.”

The 42nd place finish in a 90-player Big Ten Championship field shouldn’t erase what should be considered a solid final collegiate season for Buchanan as he has an individual victory in October and has three Top 10 finishes since the calendar flipped to 2025 including a third-place finish at Purdue just under a month ago. The mental setback, as Buchanan put it with local media on Friday afternoon at the Demirjian Indoor Golf Facility, is he’s built a stellar reputation for playing his best golf during the postseason events and only has two more possible tournaments (the NCAA Urbana Regional and the NCAA Championships) to continue that streak. Buchanan made birdie on the finishing hole of his final round to help the Illini secure a one-stroke victory in the 2022 Big Ten Championships. As a sophomore, Buchanan led the individual title race at the 2023 Big Ten Championship halfway through the final round before the play was called due to weather eliminating the day’s scores. A few weeks later, he also posted a runner-up finish in stroke play at the 2023 NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Arizona. As a junior when he was named a third-team All-America selection by Golf Coaches of America Association, he was a runner-up for the individual title at the 2024 Big Ten Championship before entering the summer where he advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 U.S. Amateur Championships.

“I think about a few years ago where I was playing behind (All-America selections) Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Tommy Kuhl where nobody cared if I played bad, but it was great if I played well,” Buchanan said. “Now it’s like ‘why isn’t he playing well?’ because he’s one of the best players. So, part of me is trying to get back to my younger self where if I play bad, nobody cares and if I play great, it’s ‘oh look at this young guy playing well huh?’.

Needless to say, the expectations for his play in the months of April and May both internally and externally are high for the Dacula, Ga. native and Buchanan may be finding out that may just be the source of his recent frustration.

“I haven’t been swinging it at my best and then you compound that with expectations and rankings and trying to be a leader, but I wouldn’t say it’s one single thing,” Buchanan said Friday. “It’s hard to play golf when you’re not swinging it well but it’s also hard to play golf when you’re not in an Illinois competitive mindset as well.

Following the disappointment that was the 2025 Big Ten Championship, Buchanan did find some recent success at his recent U.S. Open local qualifying stage round on Monday. Buchanan fired a back-nine 32 at Briar Ridge Country Club in Schererville, Ind., to tie two other players for the lowest round of the day and guarantee he’ll move on to Sectional Qualifying for a major professional championship and our nation’s national title event.

Ryan Voois, who has been teammates with Buchanan for three years and is the only other upperclassmen on the Illini starting roster, said Friday he’d like to see his good friend go back to being more clear-minded and almost carefree with his attitude instead of feeling the burden of being one of the nation’s best players and a senior leader on Small’s squad.

“There’s obviously no guarantees you’re going to go out and play well no matter who you are but he’s such an unbelievably good player with a ton of ability and skill,” Voois said. “If he just goes out and plays, he’ll be just fine starting this week but also going into professional golf. He’s ready for that world too.”

Buchanan and everybody inside the Illini team room are optimistic the much-needed good vibes for its star player could instantly come from the fact Illinois is hosting an NCAA regional for the first time in program history at Atkins Golf Club. Starting Monday morning, Buchanan and the four other players in the Illini lineup will play their home course in Urbana, an 18-hole layout they’ve all played at least several dozen times, for the right to play in the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa - North Course in Carlsbad, Calif.

“Golf is about momentum and rhythm, so I think if I find those things this week, I’ll be just fine,” Buchanan said.