How a former Ole Miss national champ helped Michael La Sasso win his own NCAA individual title

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Michael La Sasso is close with Braden Thornberry, the 2017 NCAA individual champion at Ole Miss, and chats with him often.

Coming into the postseason, Thornberry told La Sasso, now a junior for the Rebels, to enjoy the final tournaments of the year and have plenty of fun. Safe to say La Sasso took that advice to heart.

La Sasso captured the 2025 NCAA Men's Golf Championship individual title on Monday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa's North Course, joining Thornberry as the only individual winners from Ole Miss. He shot even-par 72 on Monday, finishing at 11-under 277 for the week and two shots in front of Texas A&M senior Phichaksn Maichon.

"If you would have told me the first tournament of the year that I was going to win a national championship as an individual, I probably would have said you're lying," La Sasso said. "Just being able to mature over the course of a year, having those thoughts and feelings coming down the stretch, I don't think I really would have handled it that well at the start of my junior year.

"I felt pretty good out there, kind of walking down that last stretch of holes, and kept my head pretty good."

La Sasso, a finalist for the 2025 Haskins Award, earned an exemption into the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the 2026 Masters, provided he remains an amateur, with the victory.

La Sasso mentioned how he matured over the year, and he had to thanks to the adversity he dealt with throughout the year. No moment was more shocking – or out of this world – than at the Cabo Collegiate this spring when La Sasso stepped on a sea urchin and had to have emergency surgery on his foot to remove the spines. Ole Miss coach Chris Malloy begged him to sit out. He didn't, grinding his way to a T-13 finish.

Lessons like that helped when he faced adversity during the final round. Starting on the back nine, he made double bogeys on No. 15 and No. 17 with a birdie sandwiched in between, but when he stepped on the first tee with nine holes to play, he trailed Maichon by two shots.

Maichon, who led the championship after the opening round when he shot 66, had a pair of bogeys on the back nine to give up the lead. La Sasso, who finished the week shooting 14 under on the front nine compared to 3 over on the back, flexed his strength down the stretch.

He birdied the par-4 fourth and added another at the par-5 sixth. The final three holes included two of the five hardest in the final round Monday, but three straight pars made for an easy close to his individual title.

"So easy for me to say how proud of him that I am in this moment," Ole Miss coach Chris Malloy said. "He's worked his butt off. He's worked a lot to be better version of himself, control his emotion. So he was ready for a big moment like today. A year ago, it had been tough for him to handle.

"He handled it like a rock star today, like he never, never wavered. And ultimately, you know, he's a national champion."

La Sasso's finish was also big, as he helped Ole Miss earn the final spot for match play, which begins Tuesday in the quarterfinals. The Rebels will make their debut in match play and face defending national champion and top-ranked Auburn in the quarterfinals. The top seed after stroke play has gone on to win only once in match play since the format change in 2009.

Auburn sophomore Jackson Koivun, who swept the major postseason award last year when he helped the Tigers to their first championship in school history, finished T-4. In the process, he earned his final point in PGA Tour University Accelerated, which gives him a PGA Tour card.

Koivun, however, will defer turning pro until next year and return to Auburn for his junior year.

There will also be Bedlam in the match play quarterfinals between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, which won the team titles in 2017 and 2018, respectively. It's the first time the in-state rivals have faced off in NCAA match play.

But Monday was about La Sasso and his resolve. And now he's a champion.

"Going to celebrate hard for probably about the next hour and a half and then get ready to go play match play tomorrow," La Sasso said. "Hopefully we can sweep as a team. I think that would be pretty special, as well."