{"id":433998,"date":"2026-01-28T03:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433998\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:25:18","slug":"ncaa-champion-golfer-michael-la-sasso-forfeits-masters-eligibility-for-liv-golf-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433998\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA champion golfer Michael La Sasso forfeits Masters eligibility for LIV Golf. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA champion golfer Michael La Sasso is giving up his opportunity to play in this year\u2019s Masters in order to join LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

The Ole Miss star is also forfeiting his final year of college eligibility as he is joining HyFlyers GC\u2019s LIV Golf team, which is captained by Phil Mickelson. <\/p>\n

LIV Golf made the announcement<\/a> about La Sasso joining its league last week.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m incredibly excited to join HyFlyers GC and take this next step in my career,\u201d Michael La Sasso said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s a rare opportunity to learn from one of the greatest players in the history of the game, and I don\u2019t take that lightly. <\/p>\n

\u201cLIV Golf allows me to compete at the highest level on a global stage, and I thrive in a team environment, especially one with the camaraderie and support that defines HyFlyers GC. My focus is on learning, continuing to improve, and doing everything I can to help our team succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael La Sasso won the 2025 NCAA individual national championship and was named an All-American twice during his college career.<\/p>\n

Ole Miss golf coach Chris Malloy spoke with golf.com<\/a> about La Sasso\u2019s decision to join LIV. According to Malloy, money played a large role in the decision.<\/p>\n

“A lot of financial stability,” Malloy said of his star player joining LIV. “Staying in the States and going through PGA Tour U and PGA Tour all of that, they\u2019re probably a lot less guarantees at this point for some of these guys. So I think that stability, pathway going forward for him was probably a little bit too much to pass up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that it was, “Financially, a number that you can\u2019t turn back from.”<\/p>\n

While the decision makes sense for La Sasso financially, there are downsides, including missing out on playing in the Masters.<\/p>\n

However, he made the decision that he believes is best for him long-term, according to Malloy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard for him,\u201d Malloy said. \u201cIt was a lot of things. I was happy for him, I\u2019m proud of him, I\u2019m excited for him. Sad that he wasn\u2019t going to get to finish out the spring. \u2026 It was a decision that was a little bit forced on him, and timing, again, was unfortunate. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was a wide range of emotions, but ultimately again from my end very, very proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NCAA champion golfer Michael La Sasso is giving up his opportunity to play in this year\u2019s Masters in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-433998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}