Playing in 24 USGA championships would be accomplishment enough for most people. So would be amassing more than 20 triumphs in other tournaments. But those feats are only part of Olivia Herrick’s golf story.
A native Minnesotan who is competing in this week’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, the 36-year-old mother of two is also a graphic designer who has created logos for a number of esteemed courses and clubs – Lido, Sedge Valley, the Sandbox at Sand Valley, Shorty’s at Bandon Dunes, Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers resorts in New Zealand among them – while running her own firm. Next month, she will immerse herself even more deeply into the sport when she becomes the creative director for Dream Golf and begins supporting in a variety of ways the marketing and brand-building of the growing collection of golf destinations operated under that appellation by the Keiser family of Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley fame.
What that means is Herrick is building a business résumé as equally impressive as the one she has assembled in golf, becoming along the way a player in both realms.
Working in graphic design is something Herrick has wanted to do since she was a young teenager.
“My mother was a graphic designer,” she said. “She was into observing the world around her and taking things in. And she taught me to see life through a creative lens, pointing out beautiful colors when we were outside or curating bulletin boards at home with fonts and images she loved.
“I even used my computer back then, when I was 13 or 14 years old, to design logos for fake businesses or even for places that I knew, like our dry cleaners just down the road,” Herrick said.
Her interest in golf bloomed soon after, nurtured initially by her father who brought her along for rounds of golf and then by some successes she enjoyed as a junior player.
“I remember receiving a plaque for finishing third in the first tournament I ever entered,” said Herrick, who was 15 years old at the time. “I held it up to show my mom as I walked to the car. It was a big moment for me, and I wanted to feel that way again.”
Around that same time, Herrick started to see a pathway to playing competitive golf in college.
“So, I kept working at it,” she said. It led her to Drake University, an NCAA Division I school in Des Moines, Iowa. There, under her maiden name of Lansing, she honed her golf game, getting good enough to win the Missouri Valley Conference individual championship twice.
At the same time, Herrick earned her college degree in graphic design and magazine journalism.
The oldest of two daughters, Herrick grew up in the Twin Cities suburbs. Her father was a dentist and her mother an art director for a spell and also part of the marketing department at 3M, a company about as Minnesota as ice fishing.
“My mother stopped working there when my little sister was 3 or 4 and became a homemaker full-time,” she said.
Herrick attended a small private school through middle and high school that emphasized the arts, which fed her growing appetite for all things creative. And it was during those years she became smitten with golf.
“My dad played,” she said. “He did not start until he was in his mid-30s, in part because he was such a hard worker. He really liked the game and felt that in order to play as often as he wanted, he needed to bring his eldest daughter out with him on occasion. He made it fun for me. I’d ride around in the cart and then play from 20 yards in. He’d also buy me a Snickers bar at the turn. He thought of me as his golf buddy, and I happily accepted that role.”
In time, golf became a bigger and bigger part of Herrick’s life. “My parents had a rule that my sister and I had to play a sport each season,” she said. “So, I played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and then golf in the spring and summer. I was surrounded by athletics, and by playing so many different sports, I never got burned out on just one. I think that made it easier to focus on golf when I decided that was what I wanted to do.”
Herrick did well enough as a junior golfer to draw some interest from colleges. She received offers from three schools, Boston University, the University of Cincinnati and Drake, and decided on Drake, which had just started a women’s golf program. Part of the allure was being able to compete on a D-I team while she also studied graphic design.
“I also liked that Drake was only a four-hour drive from my home,” she said.
Herrick attended Drake from 2006 to 2010 and says she enjoyed her time in Des Moines immensely. “I still talk to four of my teammates from my time there almost daily,” she said.
Herrick also played some pretty good golf. In addition to those Missouri Valley Conference titles whilst in college, she captured a women’s state open, two state amateurs, and four mid-amateurs – with her latest mid-am title coming this week – in Minnesota after graduating.
Once out of school, Herrick went to work for a greeting card company and a school in St. Paul, where she coached the girls varsity golf team and where she also served as the marketing and communications manager. Then in 2016, she hung out her own shingle, founding Olivia Herrick Design.
“My dad had run his own business, and I had a bit of entrepreneurial spirit in my heart,” she said. “I also wanted the flexibility to train and play tournaments. I had two clients that first year and was able to exceed what I had made the year before in my other job.”
“I am doing exactly what I set out to do.” — Olivia Herrick
Initially, golf was only a very small part of her business.
“I had intentionally stayed out of the game when I started due to some apprehension about mixing my work life with my life outside work,” said Herrick, who married in 2012 a fellow Minnesotan and one-time collegiate golfer named Bror Herrick. “But I found the opposite to be true, particularly in my work for the Keisers. And now, I feel I bring a unique perspective to my job because I really understand the golf industry.”
The new gig will no doubt keep Herrick busy, as will taking care of her daughters, ages 5 and 2.
“I’ll stay at home and work remotely most of the time,” she said. “And I’ll keep playing tournaments, maybe eight a year. Fortunately, Bror is very supportive. He caddied for me when we were dating and well understands why I want to keep competing. He covers for me all the time.”
It could not have worked out much better for Herrick, in her business and also her golf.
“I am doing exactly what I set out to do,” she said.
Top: Olivia Herrick tees off during 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in May, one of her 24 appearances in a USGA championship event. Chris Keane, USGA
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