Family ties give Mylie Herron an extra reason to enjoy every round on the golf course. The Upperman senior and her cousin, Lilly Herron, have turned their close relationship into a competitive advantage, leaning on each other through difficult holes while learning to balance the pressure of competition with the joy of playing together.
Mylie and Lilly have been the Lady Bees’ only two golfers for the past two seasons. Mylie said playing alongside her younger cousin has changed the way she approaches her own performance.
“She has made me have a more positive outlook on things,” Herron said. “If it doesn’t go well, then it’s okay, there’s a new day to start and she just makes it more fun. You don’t have to be so tough on yourself if you can have fun and just enjoy it.”
Their relationship also gives Mylie an opportunity to help Lilly work through challenging moments. Rather than allowing a difficult hole or round to linger, Mylie tries to draw on her own experiences to help her cousin reset.
“If she’s in a bad mindset, I try to say, it’s fine, it’s just a round of golf, it’s not the end of the world and just try and keep her in a positive head space,” Herron said. “It makes it great because I feel like we have a good relationship and we’re just close. So it makes it fun while also it’s just makes it easygoing, nothing to worry about.”
The cousins’ familiarity extends well beyond their time representing Upperman. Mylie believes knowing each other for so long allows them to approach competition with a level of trust that can take newer teammates time to develop.
“I think it’s because we can rely on each other maybe a little bit more,” Herron said. “We have a better connection than other people. Because most people from our district know each other. But freshmen coming in and they’re not as close as maybe us. I just feel like we’ve known each other for so long and I just think knowing each other and having the ability to rely on each other helps with that.”
That connection does not mean every round is friction-free. Like many relatives who spend significant time together, the cousins occasionally get on each other’s nerves, but Mylie said they have been able to keep those moments from defining their experience on the course.
“I think it’s good,” Herron said. “I think we support each other pretty well. Sometimes I feel we get on each other’s nerves, but that’s with any cousin thing. It was fun & we have a good attitude with each other on the course.”
The two-player roster also leaves little room for an off day when team results are determined. Upperman has finished as district runner-up in each of the past two seasons with both cousins contributing to the result.
“I think the last two years, we’ve got district runner-up, which is pretty cool because it’s just the two of us,” Herron said. “I feel like we both have to try and put in our part since there’s not a third girl to have to rely on. So I feel like we both have to try and do our best part. Getting district runner-up was pretty cool for us to do.”
For Mylie, spending those two seasons as a two-person team has made an already-established family relationship an important part of her high school golf experience.
“It’s special because there’s just the two of us for the last two years,” Herron said. “And I just felt it was easy to connect and do better because we both are obviously cousins, so we just connect better.”
