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Michael La Sasso’s journey to become a NCAA champion began with work outside the course.
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Ole Miss new Michael La Sass knew the size of what faced the last round of the NCAA individual championship in Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif., Monday.
La Sasso tried to sleep in the two -stroke lead he held over the elder Texas A & M Phichaksn Maichon. With a ticket for 2025 US Open in Oakmont, 2026 masters and likely numerous PGA Tour sponsor, La Sasso threw and returned the night before the biggest round of his life.
At the time La Sasso climbed to Tee on Monday, Maichon had already been opened with bird-back birds to erase La Sasso’s superiority. La Sasso, starting at nine back, opened his two -bird round, but then went into a bad luck. There was a mud that led to a trick in no. 13 and then lies were lies that caused double Bogeys at 15 and 17. He was two shots back on the other side.
But where this would have broken La Sasso in the past, making him spiral and collapse, the new rebel star calmed down, showing the level of mental hardness required to win a championship.
It was not long ago that La Sasso was sitting on himself after a harsh spring and summer to see him lose 22 pounds due to a stomach virus in the SEC championship. He followed him with a tie for 191st in the American amateur. Ole Miss coach Chris Maloy and coach Emerson Newsome suggested that he left Sasso to work with a performance coach to work on his mental approach and emotions. The job was paid massively this season, after LA Sasso won twice and posted nine Top-13 endings of the NCAA championship.
“You know, a kind of just being able to have a level head and learn that we are just playing golf,” La Sasso said through Golf Digest’s Tod Leonard. “There is no need to get off a lot of yourself. Golf is golf at the end of the day, and that’s what I was trying to tell myself.”
Grit showed.
La Sasso Birdied no. 4 and 6, the latter helped by some lucky jumps after the tugged and La Sasso shot was thrown three times on the carriage trail before pulling back to the highway. That bird at no. 6 was the last of the La Sasso round and took it on 11 under the par. In front of him, Maichon threw two shots to post nine under, leaving La Sasso with a clear target to hit to set up the trophy. In the 7th hole, La Sasso’s shot sat next to a bunker that withdrew his teammate Ole Miss had left out. He flew his second shot on green, but rose up and down and sailed home to post a last round 72 and became the second player in the history of the Ole Miss program to win the individual title, joining Braden Thornberry.
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