Chills ran up Chris Malloy’s spine as he sat in the backyard of his South Tampa home overlooking the waters of Pirate’s Cove.
It was June of 2014, and he’d just received a phone call from Ross Bjork. Malloy had just accepted a position to become the Ole Miss men’s golf coach.
“This is a dream come true,” he thought.
But two weeks prior, he’d received a similar phone call from Bjork saying he would like to talk to Malloy about Ole Miss’ head coaching vacancy.
A chance to live in Oxford and coach at his alma mater where he spent his playing days. It was a no brainer, right? Not exactly.
“I was really happy with where I was, and a lot of people think it is a no brainer to go from University of South Florida to an SEC school in Ole Miss and especially your alma mater,” Malloy said. “But that may be the case in football and some others, but I had just built that program from 200th in the country to a top 10 team. I really liked Tampa.”
Malloy was four years into his job as head coach of the Bulls. He had built that program from the ground up. He was the 2013 Big East coach of the year and was a regional playoff loss to Oklahoma away from leading his program to the NCAA Tournament Championship rounds. He had a house on the water in South Tampa. He could drop his boat in the water and catch some fish on a whim. Why leave?
Even on the plane ride up, he didn’t have any real intentions of leaving the palm trees and sunshine.
“We will see what they have to say, but I am probably not going to take this job,” Malloy said. “But I want to make sure for the sake of Ole Miss and my love of Ole Miss that they hire the right guy.”
That changed soon after the plane touched down.
“Anyone that has sat in a room with Ross Bjork gets it,” Malloy said. “Once you hear him talk and hear his vision, you want to be on his team. He sold it for me.”
Malloy’s wife accompanied him on his trip. She fell in love with Oxford on her first extended stay. In just a few hours, it now seemed like the right move. It felt like home.
Brutal honesty and a winning mentality were the tools Malloy used to build a power in Tampa, and it was something not present in the Ole Miss program.
“He was kind of intense at first, but that is his just his personality,” senior Noah West said. “His big thing was trying to change the culture of Ole Miss golf.”
It hadn’t won a tournament since 2012 and hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2011. Malloy had a vision, and knew that honesty and a mentality change was the way to capture it, and he did so from day one when he met the returning players.
“The first meeting was pretty intense. He told us that everybody didn’t think much of our golf team and we weren’t very good and that the only things we had in common were the shirts on our back,” Ben Wolcott recalled. “That made me mad and made me want to work.”
Malloy told them he’d grant them their release and that they could go elsewhere. Or they could stay and be a part of history, as he called it.
“That sealed it for me,” Wolcott said.
(Courtesy: OleMissSports.com)
First things first, he needed his team to get tougher. They needed to compete.
“I want these guys competing from the time they’re done stretching,” Malloy said.
He wants them playing. In college golf, five players play per tournament. He has them qualify for every single spot in each one.
“He wants us to work on our short game and wedges,” West said. “But he really wants us out playing a lot. That’s the best form of practice and really where you learn how to score.”
“He preaches competition. We qualify a lot. He likes to say ‘get after each other.’ Whatever we are doing, he wants us competing,” Wolcott echoed.
It didn’t come easy. The transition was tough. The Rebels made the NCAA Tournament his first season but finished 12th in the regional. A tumultuous fall season followed, capped off by a 12th out of 17 finish at the Makai Golf Club in Hawaii.
The results weren’t happening. He gathered his team on a small hill next to the practice putting green on the property and laid on more brutal honesty. He told them changes would be made if the results didn’t come.
“They sat us down on the property of the golf course and had a come-to-Jesus meeting. They laid out what was going to happen in that spring season and moving forward,” Wolcott said. “That was kind of a wake up call to where we were and where we wanted to be.”
It was nothing new to them, though. Malloy has been honest and open since day one.
“It’s changing the mindset. I think that is what you do first and foremost,” he said. “You have to change the locker room and the way those guys think.”
He handles everything out in the open. When things need to be said, they shut the locker room door and address it as one.
“Once that door opens, we walk out as brothers,” Malloy said.
What a difference a year can make.
Last week, Malloy’s team gathered on that same property, on that same golf course. This time, they were raising a trophy and celebrating their third and final win of one of the most successful fall seasons in Ole Miss history.
The Rebels steamrolled the field by 22 shots. Their other wins came by six and 15 strokes. Ole Miss didn’t just win; it dominated. Three wins in five tournaments was enough to leave Malloy speechless.
“I have coached some pretty good teams. I have never been a part of something like this fall,” Malloy said. “I hate to use this word, but it was magical, in terms of what they had done. It was really special.”
He struggled for words as he faced his team, which had capped off a memorable semester in style. The mentality had changed. His group had bought in. They were tougher.
“I think that mindset has changed,” Malloy said. “They have gotten a little confidence and don’t get too wrapped up when things don’t go your way.”
He credits West and Wolcott immensely in helping build the winning product now in front of them.
“They’ve seen it all. They were here the year before I got here, and these last two years have gone through this transition,” Malloy said. “I have challenged them a lot and they have bought in. They have changed their game. They have changed their lives and, man, you see both those guys now are playing the best golf of their lives.”
They’re also having the most fun they’ve had on a golf course in their lives.
Malloy’s first big recruiting land, and one of the hottest players in the country, in sophomore Braden Thornberry – who has won three times individually this fall season – has helped too.
“He’s won three out of five tournaments this fall, and the other two he was in the top five. That’s crazy,” West said. “If you look at it – every time he has won individually – those are the tournaments he has won. It has been cool to watch.”
Ole Miss is nationally ranked and even more so relevant. Malloy’s phone has blown up from people across the golf world, taking notice of what’s being built in Oxford. One coach made it particularly clear just how well the Rebels are playing.
“I think I have a really good group of players, and we are losing to you by 30 shots right now. That should tell you something,” he told Malloy.
There are still plenty of reminders of where they came from, and a look around the clubhouse would tell you that. Ole Miss is behind in terms of modern SEC-caliber golf facilities but is catching up in that department, too. A new team clubhouse along with upgrades to the practice facility are on the horizon to reward its success.
It makes for a difficult recruiting pitch at times, but that doesn’t deter Malloy.
“You can go to Alabama and LSU and some of these schools that have done it, or you can come here and do it just as easily and walk around here like a king and be the first,” Malloy said.
It’s working. On Wednesday, the Rebels inked three more players in Matt Liddon from Yazoo City, Cecil Wegener and Charlie Miller from Jackson.
Malloy’s vision is bigger. He sees no reason why Ole Miss can’t be a national power. He’s a long way from where he wants to go, but happy with the trajectory that it is on.
“I think this is just the beginning. I think we are only going to get better. I think you get better as you get deeper,” Malloy said.
This 2016 fall season has put the Rebels on the map. Wolcott and West will graduate after this spring, and new faces will come. But they know they’ve helped cement the foundation.
“It was really cool and one of the most special things that I have been a part of,” Wolcott said, “To sit there at the same place, same golf course and receive the trophy and end on three wins in the fall semester was pretty special.”
It wasn’t the easiest decision for Malloy to come back to Oxford. It wasn’t the sexiest of jobs, and he likely could have gone elsewhere. But he envisioned the future that day in his Tampa backyard, and now he’s living it.
“It’s hard to put into words. We are about to get back into an important recruiting time, and what we have done and the attention that it has gotten from people that know golf and how special this is,” Malloy said. “I really think it is going to open the eyes of some of the elite recruits throughout the nation.”
