Mississippi’s most successful collegiate athletic program in the 2024-25 school year? It’s not close.
That honor goes to the Ole Miss men’s golf team, and the story could get even better at this week’s U.S. Open.
Start with National Coach of the Year. Chris Malloy, a former Rebel golfer himself, who earned that honor (bestowed by Golfweek Magazine). Malloy has enjoyed much success in Oxford, but his 12th season at the helm was his best. The Rebels were ranked No. 1 for much of the season and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Championships before being edged 3-2 by eventual national champion Oklahoma State.
Most impressively, Michael LaSasso, a Raleigh, North Carolina, junior, claimed the NCAA individual national championship with a two-shot victory at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, near San Diego. LaSasso shot 11-under par for 72 holes to lead the Rebels into an eight-team match play championship tournament.
But it doesn’t end there. When the U.S. Open begins Thursday morning at famed Oakmont Country Club, near Pittsburgh, two current Ole Miss Rebels will be in the field. LaSasso qualified by winning the NCAA Championship. Cameron Tankersley, another junior from Dickson, Tennessee, qualified the hard way, by shooting 8-under-par during a 36-hole qualifier at Bent Tree in Dallas, beating out many PGA Tour pros and international players to earn the Open berth.
Just qualifying for the U.S. Open Championship is a feat. More than 10,000 elite golfers from around the globe attempted to qualify. The final field consists of 156.
Reached via cellphone Monday morning, Malloy was driving from Oxford to the Memphis airport, via a three-hour stopover in Senatobia. Senatobia, you ask? “Yeah, I just finished caddying for my 10-year-old son Cash in a junior tournament,” Malloy answered, chuckling. “These last couple weeks have been a whirlwind. That was something I needed and wanted to do.”
Malloy was to arrive in Pittsburgh later Monday, then spend Tuesday and Wednesday at Oakmont helping prepare LaSasso and Tankersley for what will be the most difficult task they have faced in their young golfing lives.
Oakmont is a brute. The late Henry C. Fownes, the founder and designer of Oakmont Country Club, famously said in 1904, “A shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost.” At Oakmont, all these 121 years later, those words ring true. The course offers a 293-yard par 3, a 515-yard par-4 and a 663-yard par-5. But the length of the course is by no means what makes it so challenging. The rough – a thick mix of rye, fescue and bluegrass – will be five to six inches high. If not for for caddies, golfers would almost have to step on their golf balls to find them.
What’s more, the Oakmont greens are devilishly sloped and remarkably fast. Golf legend Slammin’ Sammy Snead once said, “At Oakmont once, I put a dime down to mark my ball and the dime slid away.”
“I’ve not seen it yet, except on TV, but that’s all everybody talks about is how difficult it is,” Malloy said of the greens. “Our guys pride themselves on being tough, handing difficult situations. Golf is way more about how you handle your bad shots and tough situations than it is anything else. But this will be a real challenge.”
No doubt about that. It also will provide valuable experience for two guys expected to return to Oxford and make Ole Miss almost surely the No. 1 team in college golf polls to begin the 2025-26 school year. The Rebels lose only one player from a deep roster and have two highly rated recruits coming in.
Asked what would be considered a successful U.S. Open for the two Ole Miss players, Malloy paused for a couple seconds before answering. “The obvious answer would be for them to make the (36-hole) cut,” he said. “And that would be an unbelievable accomplishment, competing on that golf course against the best players in the world. But I don’t want to sell either of them short. If one of them gets on a roll, plays to the best of his ability, they could be a factor. These guys can really play. They’ve shown that.”
