CARLSBAD — The University of San Diego arrived at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa as the last team to make the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships and spent most of the week playing like a team that had no interest in leaving.
The Toreros survived a regional playoff just to get here. They made the 54-hole cut on the number. They gave themselves a Monday with real stakes on La Costa’s North Course.
They just couldn’t make the run last one more day.
USD combined for a 22-over 310 in Monday’s fourth and final round of stroke play, finishing 15th at 24 over and missing the eight-team cut for Tuesday’s match play quarterfinals. The Toreros were attempting to reach match play for the first time in program history.
“It was obviously not what we wanted to do,” USD coach Evan Emerick said. “But I always say, ‘We’re never failing, we’re always learning.’ “
The ending, harsh as it was, should not erase the climb.
On Sunday, USD shot 1-over 289 and tied for 12th at 2-over 866 with LSU, Tennessee and Stanford, making the top-15 cut on the number. It marked just the third time San Diego has advanced past 54 holes as a team at the NCAA Championships, and the first since coach Tim Mickelson’s 2010 team did so.
That 2010 team also came painfully close to the next step, tying for eighth in stroke play before losing in a three-team playoff for a spot in match play.
This year’s team returned to La Costa chasing that same threshold, but Monday offered little traction. Still, the Toreros left with another marker of how far the program has climbed in Emerick’s second season.
“Making it back-to-back years here is something that’s really difficult to do, and I think we’re one of the youngest teams here,” Emerick said. “We made it back, and last year we finished dead last, and this year, we make it to the fourth round and finish 15th. It’s pretty special.”
Freshman Reid Piron led USD’s final round with a 1-over 73.
Ian Maspat (Scripps Ranch High School), the lone senior in the lineup, closed his NCAA championship with a 10-over 82 and finished tied for 49th. Maspat had been USD’s best golfer for most of the week, opening with a 6-under 66 on Friday to share the first-round lead and then shooting 2-under 70 on Sunday to move back to 6 under for the tournament.
He entered Monday tied for seventh, becoming the first Torero to sit inside the top 10 after 54 holes at the NCAA championships since Alex Ching was tied for second in 2010.
“I played great for most of the week,” Maspat said. “There were just some bad breaks. It was tougher today. It was higher-speed winds, for sure, tougher pin locations, tee boxes moved back. But I never gave up; neither did the boys, which I’m proud of. We all fought until the end, which is something to be proud of.”
USD’s lineup — Maspat, junior You Seong Choi, sophomore Cooper Humphreys and freshmen Piron and Reed Arnaldo (La Costa Canyon High) — reflected both the program’s present and its future.
“Sometimes you’ve got to get knocked down to learn the biggest lessons, right?” Emerick said. “Last year, we did that, and we made it further. We’re just going to keep getting better.”
At the top of the leaderboard, Auburn earned the No. 1 seed for match play at 26 under after entering Monday with a three-shot lead over Texas. The Tigers were followed into the quarterfinals by the Longhorns, Florida, defending national champion Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Stanford and UCLA. The Cardinal and Bruins advanced in a four-for-two playoff with North Carolina and Tennessee.
Oklahoma State’s Preston Stout won the individual national title at 14-under 274, becoming the Cowboys’ 10th NCAA individual champion and their first since Matthew Wolff in 2019. Stout birdied the 72nd hole to edge Alabama sophomore William Jennings by one shot after Jennings missed a par putt on his final hole that would have forced a playoff.
“It’s pretty special,” Stout told Golf Channel. “I wish I wouldn’t have made it so stressful coming down the 18, but that’s why we practice. That’s why we go to Oklahoma State, for moments like that.”