CARLSBAD, Calif. – Ole Miss head coach Chris Malloy was preparing for dinner with some coaching friends and their wives ahead of the Cabo Collegiate last March when his phone rang. It was Malloy’s assistant, Emerson Newsome, who was with the Rebels’ players at a nearby beach.
“Hey, we’ve got a problem,” Newsome said to Malloy.
Malloy responded: “Of course we do.”
Malloy has seen everything over the years, dating to 2019 when one of his players lost a ball after hitting a bird late in the final round of the NCAA Stanford Regional, were Ole Miss missed by a shot. Last spring, Malloy’s star player Michael La Sasso was among several guys to contract a stomach virus during the SEC Championship. La Sasso didn’t play that week and didn’t count the next event at regionals, as Ole Miss again finished a shot shy of advancing at Stanford Golf Course. And then there was the Puerto Rico Classic to kick off this spring; not only did all five players battle through the flu, but Newsome ended up in the emergency room after taking a driver to the forehead.
So, when Newsome informed Malloy that La Sasso had stepped on a sea urchin and had dozens of black spines stuck in his right foot, Malloy already had a doctor on speed dial.
For the next four hours, La Sasso sat there as each spine was surgically – and painfully – removed from his foot. Luckily, the tournament permits carts, and La Sasso powered through for a T-13 finish despite the urging of Malloy to sit out.
“I’ve personally fought a s— ton of stuff these last two years since I’ve been at Ole Miss,” La Sasso said, “and I feel like I’m a pretty gritty guy.”
La Sasso has avoided adversity through two days of the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship. He’s carded 12 birdies and an eagle while shooting 68-67 and joining Arizona State’s Connor Williams, a local kid, atop the individual leaderboard at Omni La Costa.
As a team, the Rebels, No. 1 for much of the season and ranked third entering this week, overcame a slow start (5 over in Friday’s opening round) to shoot 1 under on Saturday. At 4 over, Ole Miss is firmly in contention to make the final eight after Monday’s final round of stroke play.
“Compared to last year, anything is smooth sailing,” Malloy said. “This team is pretty good when we just have normal things happening.”
La Sasso wasn’t a big-name recruit when he initially signed with North Carolina State out of high school. He transferred to Ole Miss prior to last season and has since developed into not only a flashy player with the ability to pile up birdies, but also a consistent scorer who prides himself on hitting fairways and isn’t afraid to carry a 3-hybrid, which he’s used a ton around La Costa. He’s not just in great position to win an NCAA individual title, but he’ll make his PGA Tour debut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July and he’s nearing lock territory to make the 10-man U.S. Walker Cup team that will compete at Cypress Point in September.
Regardless of what happens, this summer should be much better than last. La Sasso lost 22 pounds after his bout with that stomach illness, which also “screwed up” his mechanics. He competed in the Arnold Palmer Cup at Lahinch, and it wasn’t pretty.
“Like every hole is dogleg left, wind off the left,” La Sasso said, “and I started seeing these major slices and kind of started to freak out a little bit. I was fighting it for a while.”
La Sasso didn’t crack the top 50 in limited action that summer. He also tweaked his back in the gym right before the U.S. Amateur, and he missed that cut by a mile, tying for 191st.
When La Sasso arrived back in Oxford, his confidence was shot.
“It was like a week before school started, and I’m just sitting there on the putting green,” La Sasso said. “My assistant coach comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Dude, you have got to snap out of it.’ I had this victim mindset. I had missed first-team All-American; I was the only kid on the Palmer Cup team who wasn’t. I was wondering to myself, like, am I not meant to be here? Am I a fluke?
“Emerson’s like, ‘You’re plenty good enough. You have to be more optimistic.’”
With some guidance from Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry, the former Haskins Award winner and Walker Cupper who finally earned his PGA Tour card this season after years of grinding on the developmental tours. Thornberry’s main advice to La Sasso was don’t worry about the accolades; only your play will get you to the PGA Tour.
“He just has to be him,” Malloy said of La Sasso.
In La Sasso’s case, be where your feet are – just watch out for sea urchins.