In his tenth season as the head coach of the Ole Miss men’s golf program, Chris Malloy announced the 2023-24 schedule on Friday. Malloy will take his Rebels across the south as well as across charted waters with a 10-tournament slate. The regular season begins with four fall tournaments before six spring tournaments leading up to NCAA postseason play.
“We are extremely excited with the way our schedule turned out,” Malloy said. “We’ve mixed in some new tournaments with ones that we have played in the past. Our ultimate goal is to play on as many types of grasses and the best golf courses as we can to challenge our players throughout the year so that we are prepared to make a run at a national championship by the end of the year.”
Ole Miss is coming off a successful season as Malloy led his Rebels to their sixth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. Overall, Ole Miss posted five top-three team finishes, 11 individual top-10 finishes and 20 individual top-15 finishes. The Rebels put in a program-best of 22 rounds under par and 25 rounds par or better on the season, including a 268-round score at the 2022 SEC Fall Preview that broke the program record for the lowest total for a single round.
Hoping to continue the prosperous streak, Ole Miss will launch its 2023-24 campaign in Knoxville, Tennessee at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate (Sept. 8-10) for the inaugural tournament hosted by the Volunteers on the Tennessee National Course. Following their time in Rocky Top, the Rebels will travel back down south to face off with familiar foes at the SEC Fall Preview (Sept. 25-27) in Birmingham, Alabama at the Birmingham Country Club. During last season’s competition, Ole Miss defeated South Carolina in match play, 3-2.
Ole Miss will then collaborate with Mississippi State University and University of Southern Mississippi’s golf teams to host the inaugural Fallen Oak Collegiate Invitational (Oct. 14-17) at the Fallen Oak course in Biloxi, Mississippi. The Rebels will wrap up their fall season in Maui, Hawaii at the Ka’anapali Classic (Oct. 26-28) at the Royal Ka’anapali Course. This will be the second consecutive year Ole Miss has made an appearance in the Aloha State. Last year, freshman Cameron Tankersley snagged a top-10 finish with a 205 (-8) overall score, contributing to the Rebels’ 832 (-20) team score.
To kick off its spring schedule, Ole Miss will take off to international waters at the Puerto Rico Classic (Feb. 11-13) in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the fifth time in the past seven seasons. Tankersley grabbed his fourth top-20 finish during his freshman campaign in last year’s tournament, and the Rebels put up a 16-under overall score.
The Rebels will continue their international tour at the Cabo Collegiate (March 3-5) at the Twin Dolphin Club. Aside from the 2020 season, the Rebels have made the trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico every year since 2013. Last season, Ole Miss ended the tournament at six-under par in second place. Overall, Ole Miss was able to put in 54 birdies and two eagles through 54 holes. The Rebels led the field in par-5 scoring (-19), which led them to finish above 11 top-50 ranked teams on the leaderboard.
Ole Miss will return to the states the following weekend to compete in the Seminole Intercollegiate (March 11-12) in Tallahassee, Florida at the Seminole Legacy Golf Course for the second consecutive season. Last year, Ole Miss finished in third place out of 15 teams. After a three-week break, Ole Miss will head to Music City for the Mason Rudolph Intercollegiate (Apr. 5-7) at the Vanderbilt Legends Club. During last season’s appearance in Nashville, Patton Samuels tied for 15th finish marked a new season-best finish for the freshman.
The Rebels will wrap its regular season slate in-state at the Mossy Oak Collegiate (Apr. 15-16) in West Point, Mississippi, where they captured a season-best 29-under relation to par score during last season’s competition. Following play at Mossy Oak Golf Course, the Rebels will begin to prepare for the postseason at the SEC Championships (Apr. 24-28) in Sea Island, Georgia on the Sea Island Golf Club. The event will be including three rounds of stroke play before a cut will be made to advance the top-eight teams to match play. The Rebels made the cut in last year’s competition with a sixth place finish in stroke play, proceeding to the match play portion for the first time since 2017.
Following the 10-tournament slate, the Rebels hope their resume speaks for itself in seeking a berth to their seventh straight NCAA Regional.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
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