While you were likely preoccupied with the baseball and softball teams making moves the last few days, the Ole Miss men’s golf team is on the edge of advancing in the NCAA golf national championship proceedings.
Since Friday, the fellas have been teeing it up at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, which is just north of San Diego. Granted, it’s no Fayetteville, Arkansas or Hoover, Alabama with I-459 in sight, but Carlsbad in May with a temperature that hovers around 70 degrees is at least acceptable.
After two rounds of team stroke play on Friday and Saturday, Ole Miss sits in 8th (out of 30 teams) at +4 (+5 on Friday; -1 on Saturday). They’re two shots behind 7th-place Oklahoma State and three shots ahead of Illinois.
Prior to Sunday’s tee times, here’s the official top-15 (plus ties) leaderboard:
Arizona State -13
Oklahoma -10
Auburn -8
Florida -5
Texas E
Oklahoma State +2
Ole Miss +4
Illinois +7
California +8
Virginia +10
Pepperdine +11
Colorado +11
Georgia Tech +11
Vanderbilt +12
Wake Forest +12
Texas A&M +12
Why the top 15, you ask? Well, the top 15 is important due to the format of the national championship, which I should explain. Bear with me, as this format is moderately deranged.
On Friday through Sunday, all 30 teams in the national championship event will play 54 holes of stroke play. Following the conclusion of Sunday’s third-round festivities, the top 15 teams* will advance to compete in one additional round of stroke play.
*Adding to the whirlwind, the top 9 individuals not on the advancing teams will play an additional round of stroke play to compete with players on the advancing teams for the individual 72-hole national champion.
After the additional round for the top 15 teams, which means 72 total holes of stroke play, the top 8 teams will advance to a team match-play tournament because sure, why not. It’s like the Davis Cup in tennis. No one knows the format, but it goes on forever.
Anyhow, the team match-play tournament will be single elimination with 5 players playing for each team, and each match is worth 1 point. First team to win 3 points advances.
So, after that format exploration, what does Sunday mean for Ole Miss?
Since they’re in 8th prior, they need to keep the wheels on the track. If they shoot another -1, they’re locked in to advance to the final round of stroke play. But if they go closer to their +5 from Friday, anything can happen.
Getting to the match-play tournament is the goal, but that can’t happen unless they take care of business in stroke play. To quote the great Gene Hackman (RIP) in Hoosiers, “There’s a tradition in tournament play to not talk about the next step until you’ve climbed the one in front of you.”
So let’s hope our annoyingly good-at-golf sons (complimentary) climb the stroke play step in front of them first. Good luck to:
- Michael La Sasso
- Cohen Trolio
- Tom Fischer
- Cameron Tankersley
- Kyle Meeks
And you should know that La Sasso is T-1 at -9, which is relevant to the individual national title. To show you how ridiculous that is, here’s a story from the Ole Miss release in that link.
On the 18th hole (par 5) on Saturday, La Sasso hit his drive into the first cut and had 280 yards to the green into the wind. Then his happened:
He elected to go with three wood and blistered one into the air that landed 20 feet from the cup. La Sasso would lag his eagle putt to tap in length and finished off his second round with a birdie.
Lmao.
As a golfer who cannot (CANNOT) do that, YOU SIMULTANEOUSLY ENRAGE AND AMAZE ME, MICHAEL LA SASSO.
Let’s keep the absurdity rolling tomorrow and beyond.