Braden Hendee expected nothing more than another summer round with a friend at Shiloh Springs Golf Club on July 5.
By the time he walked back into the clubhouse, the freshly minted Platte County High School graduate had rewritten a piece of the golf club’s 31-year history.
What began as a routine round slowly turned into a historic one for the 2026 graduate of Platte County High School, as Hendee finished the 18 holes with just 62 shots for a 9-under par. It was an outing that broke the record of the 31-year-old course.
“Coming into this summer, it was my goal,” Hendee said. “I didn’t want to finish this summer without this record. I knew I was capable of it.”
The staff at Shiloh Springs weren’t particularly shocked that the previous record of 8-under had finally fallen. They had known the day was coming, and they knew Hendee would be the one to break it.
“To actually get it and have that pressure taken off is awesome,” Hendee said.
The accomplishment had been building for more than a year. Hendee narrowly missed the record last summer, and while the record lingered in his mind, he didn’t expect to break it under the warm temperatures of July 5.
“I was like, ‘Okay,’ I could go pretty low today,” Hendee said of his strong start to the round. “It kind of just happened.”
Hendee came out strong in the opening nine holes, scoring a pair of pars before rattling off seven consecutive birdies to make the turn at 7-under par. Three more birdies on the back nine offset five pars and a bogey, giving him a final score of 62 to beat the previous course record by a single stroke.
“I didn’t really think too much about it until I got to the back nine, and I realized just how close I was,” Hendee said. “I’ve played out there so much, I don’t really feel pressure when I start to go low like that. Just another round.”
Breaking the record carried extra meaning because few golfers know Shiloh Springs better than Hendee. The Park University signee has spent much of his life at the course, first tagging along with his father as a young child before regularly training at the course and joining the staff three years ago.
The staff has watched Hendee grow his love of the game from just a fun sport to play from time to time with his father to a strategic devotion. Golf became one of several sports he enjoyed as a child before eventually becoming his primary athletic focus entering high school.
In the years after, as a member of the Platte County High School boys golf team, Hendee was a three-time state qualifier and finished his high school career as a conference champion with all-state recognition before graduating this past spring.
“I’ve definitely taken a big jump over the past year or so,” Hendee said. “As a freshman, when I started out, I was very undersized and didn’t hit the ball very far, just not very smart.”
By following his father’s advice and putting in consistent work, Hendee transformed nearly every aspect of his game.
“In the last year or two, I’ve grown quite a bit and gained a lot of distance,” Hendee said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a lot smarter on the golf course. Course management has gotten much better and my tournament scores have dropped significantly.”
Hendee’s record-setting round helped close one chapter at the course where he learned the game. Later this month, he will begin the next one when he opens his freshman season at Park University.