OXFORD – Consistency is the key in a college golf season that starts in early September, takes a break for a few months and doesn’t end until potentially late May. Ole Miss has found that steadiness in a way it never has before.
The Rebels are a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Men’s Golf Tournament for the first time in program history, following a fall season where the team was ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time ever. While it ultimately doesn’t mean much if Ole Miss fails to play up to its lofty standards, head coach Chris Malloy understands the importance of the achievements reached thus far.
Ole Miss began play in the Tallahassee Regional on Monday and sits in second after the first two rounds. The top five teams at each of the six regionals around the country advance to the NCAA Championship, which starts May 23. The Rebels are in their eighth straight regional and finished sixth in the Stanford Regional a season ago.
“Any time you can do a ‘first’ in program history, you know it’s special. It’s a big deal to all of us. We know it doesn’t get us anything other than a good tee time, No. 1 seed. We have to earn it from this point forward,” Malloy said. “But, we have such a long season. A lot of people don’t realize golf is fall and spring and they both count the same. So, to do it over such a long season … we were pretty consistent throughout the year. It tells you a lot about this team.”
The Rebels are led by junior Michael La Sasso, who is the No. 3-ranked collegiate golfer in the nation and was recently named first-team All-SEC. In his second season with the Rebels, the N.C. State transfer has two tournament wins and three top-3 finishes.
“We didn’t really know exactly where we’d be coming into the start of the year,” La Sasso said. “We had a couple new faces on our team. Kind of just started off blazing hot, and then ever since then, we’ve been having pretty high expectations about how we perform and how we hold the standard of everybody on the team.”
Malloy and the Rebels are already preparing for the likelihood of poor playing conditions. Rainy conditions are expected on Monday and Tuesday, which could change the scheduling of each team’s rounds. It’s not a topic Malloy considers distracting or one to avoid. On the contrary, he believes it’s important for his golfers to be prepared for all circumstances.
“That’s probably the hardest part, but we’ve played in bad weather throughout this year. We’ve fought through those conditions, as a lot of other teams have,” Malloy said. “So, we just preach it throughout the year, and you hope that by this point in the year they are used to it. But again, it’s something we did talk about today, and we will talk about it as we lead up to it. Just be prepared for the uncertainty. Because again, weather’s not going to be just bad for us. … Let’s just handle it better than they do.”
College golf requires plenty of road trips and time with teammates and coaches. While team chemistry isn’t necessarily something that comes to mind when discussing golf – and Malloy acknowledges not all coaches feel the same way he does – it’s more important than initially meets the eye.
This team has it, Malloy said, and has the ability to “disconnect from whether we had a good day, whether we had a bad day.”
“A lot of people would argue that (chemistry) doesn’t matter a ton. I would argue that it does,” Malloy said. “We just spend so much time on the road with each other, and you’re in such tight quarters. We talked to our guys yesterday, over the next two weeks, we’re going to be together a lot, and we’re probably going to get on each other’s nerves, just like family and brothers do. But this group is great. They get along great. They’re fun on the road.”
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