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Ole Miss women’s golf will play for a national title

We’re loving what we’re seeing.

By Gray Hardison
2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship Photo by Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

Like many of you, I picked a good time to parachute in and land on the Ole Miss women’s golf team bandwagon. After spending their Tuesday afternoon defeating Texas 3-2 in match play in the quarterfinals, followed by Arizona 3-2 in the same format in the semi-finals, the ladies now find themselves playing for a national title tomorrow at 4 PM against Oklahoma State.

If you find “Ole Miss” and “national title” being in the same sentence a bit disorienting, don’t worry, it’s the primary symptom from reading such a sentence. According to our own Nicholas Carr, who dusted off the ancient scrolls, this is the first time since 1995 that ANY Ole Miss team has played for a national title.

For some perspective on how long ago 1995 was, consider the following:

  • Tommy Tuberville was the head football coach
  • Rob Evans was the men’s basketball coach
  • Van Chancellor was the women’s basketball coach
  • Don Kessinger was the baseball coach
  • Ole Miss softball didn’t exist

More importantly, what we’ll see on Wednesday is the rarest of birds in Ole Miss athletics: a team that found a way to not #WAOM and have a shot at a national title.

No matter what happens on Wednesday afternoon, this team should be celebrated and supported, which means you are within your rights to cut the brake lines of life around 4, abandoning work, school, parenting, or whatever other BORING responsibility stands in your way of watching and hollerin’.

As a lifelong Ole Miss women’s golf fan, I can assure you that you don’t want to miss a chance to see potential greatness. Why, within a stretch of a few hours on Tuesday, we got to experience a moment of confidence and execution that brought us Sad McConaugheys.

Not to be outdone, we closed down Tuesday afternoon with another un-Ole Miss, ice-cold moment to earn the championship appearance.

I’m looking forward to 4 PM when both teams step into the proverbial squared circle, and I tell The Man that I AIN’T GOT TIME FOR YOUR EMAILS, CALLS, AND VIDEO CONFERENCE MEETING THAT COULD’VE BEEN AN EMAIL. There’s a national championship on the line!

To McKinley Cunningham, Ellen Hume, Ellen Hutchinson-Kay, Julia Johnson, Andrea Lignell, Macy Somoskey, Smilla Sonderby, Kennedy Swann, Chiara Tamburlini, and coaches Kory Henkes and Zack Byrd, good luck, godspeed, and here’s to hoping you bring a national title to Ole Miss.