Ole Miss men's golf absorbed some 'haymakers' this Spring to prepare for NCAA Tournament run

In January the Ole Miss men’s golf team was set to make a Spring run with the reigning, and at the time, defending individual national champion golfer. But the universe works in weird ways.

Michael La Sasso signed with LIV Golf, which is now facing its own troubles, and then Mother Nature intervened with an ice storm the likes Oxford has not experienced in over 30 years. Both were body blows to the Rebels but head coach Chris Malloy was confident in the roster he still had.

His trust was rewarded when Ole Miss won the SEC Championship for the first time since 1984, helping the 12th-year Rebels coach fulfill one promise he made when returning to his alma mater to take over the program.

“They rallied around each other, you know. They had the confidence,” Malloy said last week when talking with the local media. “People have asked me a lot (about) this semester of, ‘What did you tell the guys?’ I didn’t have to tell them a whole lot. We were thrown a couple of haymakers. You had the Mike thing and then we had the ice storm. That affected a lot of people, but in an outdoor sport and sport like golf, that storm was suboptimal to say the least. That’s how our semester started.”

With La Sasso gone, Malloy turned to the rest of his core that finished just shy of playing for a national championship last year. Tom Fischer, Cameron Tankersley, Daniel Tolf and brothers Cohen and Collins Trolio kept the ship steady and on course.

Fischer became the anchor with a strong finish to his Spring season, collecting his second individual title of his career by earning co-medalist honors at the Mossy Oak Collegiate last month. From there it propelled him to a 3-0 week at the SEC Championships during match play.

“We saw his success at La Costa last year. That was a little bit of his coming out party and then (the SEC Championship), certainly, I mean he won the week before,” Malloy said of Fischer. “So, stroke play is pretty good, too. But he likes that. I think with him what clicks is we send him out first. He’s a fast player by nature, so there’s no other groups in front of him. Even if he’s with a slower opponent they’re not waiting on groups in front of and kind of messing up his flow. I think him just being really good and then combined with a little bit of freedom to play at his pace is a recipe for success.”

Now the Rebels, currently ranked No. 10 in the country, turn their attention to getting back to the NCAA Tournament final four and going one step closer than they did last May.

Ole Miss will have not played a competitive round of golf for over three weeks when the NCAA Regionals start.

The regional fields are announced on Wednesday and then do not get underway until May 18. Downtime is good but nearly a month between the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament is a long layoff for a team that was rolling with a lot of momentum coming out of Sea Island, Georgia.

“That’s going to be a challenge. Certainly, we’d love to get back into it and start the NCAA Tournament this week, but that’s not the reality. So, it’ll be good. (SEC Tournament) was a long week. Really long week. We got there on Monday and got back on Sunday night. So rest, we do need some of that. …There’ll be some rest, recharging the batteries a little bit. They’ll have finals (this) week then we’ll kind of try to get back into a little bit more of a normal routine.”

Part of that routine could include going and playing some practice rounds at a course similar to the one Ole Miss will play on for the regional. Though that will not be known until later this week, yet Malloy has some ideas.

The NCAA Regional selection show will air on Golf Channel at 1 p.m. CT on Wednesday.