There was no epiphany for Illinois senior golfer Scott Langley.

He wishes he could pinpoint a moment, but he just can’t. Nothing stands out — no coaching tips, no big swing adjustments, no flash of lightning.

In the end it may be for the best, because to attribute Langley’s ascent toward the top of amateur golf to any one instant would be to overlook the design behind it all.

Langley’s prodigious game, which helped him to a 16th-place finish at the U.S. Open on one of the biggest stages in golf, isn’t a fluke. It is a carefully structured creation, fine-tuned with years on the driving range and a relentless commitment to improvement.

“He’s made a perfect progression, and it’s primarily because of his discipline and dedication to be good,” Illinois head coach Mike Small said.

His development is right there in the numbers. In 2007-08, he took Big Ten Freshman of the Year with his 73.90 stroke average. But he wasn’t happy with it.

“After my freshman year, I felt like I had a long way to go if I was going to do the things I wanted to do,” Langley said.

He dropped to a 72.08 as a sophomore and was named First-Team All-Big Ten, and when he made yet another improvement as a junior, nobody was surprised.

“He had a plan coming in to get better every year and he’s really stuck to that,” senior teammate Chris DeForest said. “He’s worked really hard.”

After shaving his average down to 71.37 strokes during his junior year — the lowest mark in school history — Langley exploded onto the national scene. That season, he won the NCAA individual championship and captured First-Team All-America honors.

“You want to see improvement a little bit every year,” Small said of Langley. “You don’t want to see guys just hit their ceiling all at once and be unfamiliar where they’ve landed and not be able to handle the expectations.”

There was nothing unfamiliar to Langley about his landing place. It was just the next natural step for his game to take.

“I think it’s been a progression from freshman year to now, trying to improve every day,” Langley said. “I’ve learned new things about my game, about myself, about the ways I react to different situations.”

Following his championship win, Langley embarked on a whirlwind summer that took him from his championship win to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach to the Palmer Cup in Northern Ireland, where he helped the American team to victory against Europe.

At the U.S. Open, he was one of just two amateurs to make the cut. He finished as the low amateur, besting many of the biggest names in golf by finishing 8-over-par.

“The U.S. Open was so memorable in so many ways,” Langley said. “The whole week was filled with pretty awesome moments.”

Had Langley played the tournament as a professional, he would have won over $100,000 in prize money. As it turns out, though, going pro after his junior year was never really a consideration. Langley believes the money will be there later, and he has more that he would like to accomplish before ending the amateur phase of his career.

After recently being named to the three-man U.S. Team that will compete at the World Amateur Team Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October, Langley has his eye on one more team.

“Historically, making the Walker Cup team has always been the biggest honor an amateur can have on their resume or in their career,” Langley said. “It’s the pinnacle of amateur golf to make the team.”

In the meantime, Langley’s main focus will be to build his individual success into team success for the Illini this season and to end his college career with a bang.

He’s hard at work putting finishing touches on his already polished game, trying to become more efficient around the greens and improve his putting.

“He’s always had a good short game,” DeForest said. “It’s one of his biggest assets.”

But DeForest knows as well as anyone that Scott Langley has never been satisfied with good.