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Ole Miss

No. 3 Ole Miss back at the NCAA Championship looking for program's first team national title

11by: Jake Thompson05/22/25JakeThompsonOn3
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Ole Miss men's golfer Michael La Sasso. Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics

Despite their best player having an off week the Ole Miss men’s golf team was just one shot away from advancing out of the Stanford Regional and into the NCAA Championship. This year is a different story.

With a healthy Michael La Sasso the No. 3 Rebels clinched a second place finish in last week’s Tallahassee Regional off a scorching 13-under third round. They are back in the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2022.

Starting Friday Ole Miss will be trying to better off that 14th-place finish three years ago, currently the program’s best team finish at the national championships, and try to bring home the program’s first team national title.

“It’s one of those things we’ve proven we can already do before so I think that’s kind of some confidence we can take going into it, for sure,” La Sasso said on Monday. “I know this will be everybody’s first time going to see that golf course, so just trying to get a good feeling and game plan of how we’re going to attack that place. Besides that we should be able to bottle (the momentum) up pretty good.”

The course is the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. This will be a different course than what Ole Miss just played on in Florida and had the third round surge. Knowing where the NCAA Championships were going to be played head coach Chris Malloy made sure the schedule had a tournament with a similar course.

Two months ago the Rebels went to Puama Valley, California to play at the Pauma Valley Country Club. While not totally identical in the setup they will see starting Friday the grass was similar and that is all that matters sometimes.

“Certainly our sport’s a little unique. We’re not just playing on a regular basketball court or whatever,” Malloy said. “We play different grasses, so this will certainly be a different grass. The bent poe annua greens. We schedule (with) that in mind. …We went out to San Diego for this reason about a month ago. Almost like a dress rehearsal. The course maybe not as similar, itself, but the grass was. So these guys are not going to be surprised by anything.”

Ole Miss is taking one of its deepest teams in program history out to California to not only attempt to get a national championship but also bring home another individual national title. Braden Thornberry won the program’s first individual national championship in 2017.

La Sasso, who finished second in the Tallahassee Regional with an 11-under score, leads a group of Rebels who will have a good shot to end the seven-year drought.

The team goal comes first but the individual title is also something within reach and in the back of his mind over the next five days.

“It’s one of the bigger ones we play all year but at the end of the day golf is just gold,” La Sasso said. “You’re always going to be hitting one shot at a time. That’s kind of what I just tell myself. Going to stay in the present moment each shot. I can only deal with what I can control, so that’s kind of what I’m taking away from it. If the results turn out then it’ll be a cherry on top.”

The there is a cut of the top 15 teams after the first three rounds then a final cut for the top eight which advance to the match play.

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