Huskers Aim for NCAA Regional Play in 2026

The Nebraska men’s golf team enters the 2025-26 season focused on continuing the improvement the Huskers have made in Judd Cornell’s first three seasons as head coach.

Last season, the Big Red finished among the top three in six tournaments during the season, including a runner-up finish at Ohio State’s Robert Kepler Invitational to end the regular season.

The Huskers, who finished 32 spots higher than the previous season in the final Scoreboard national rankings, achieved their highest ranking as a team in more than a decade to stay in the hunt for an NCAA Regional bid until late in the season.

Cornell will be challenged to replace two of Nebraska’s top five golfers from a year ago in senior Hamish Murray and graduate student Reed Malleck, but the 2025-26 Huskers also have a solid nucleus to build around.

Rudy Sautron headlines a strong group of golfers returning to the Husker lineup. The junior from Reunion Island, France, led Nebraska with a school-record 71.70 stroke average over 30 rounds in his first season with the Big Red in 2024-25.

Sautron, who also set the school single-round record with a 63 (-9) at the Steelwood Collegiate to close the fall portion of Nebraska’s schedule in late October, showed the ability to play electric golf early in the season.

He won the Gopher Invitational to open the season, before adding a tie for third at the Qubein Cup and a tie for sixth at Steelwood. He closed his sophomore season with six individual top-15 finishes for the Huskers.

Sautron entered the spring season ranked among the top-80 golfers in NCAA Division I, before closing the year in the top 250. With a year of Division I experience under his belt, Sautron is hoping to lock up an NCAA Regional appearance for himself, while leading the Big Red to a team bid to regionals in 2025-26.

Sautron can expect plenty of help from Brodie Cunningham. The sophomore from Glasgow, Scotland, showed impressive improvements throughout his true freshman season and was one of Nebraska’s top golfers during the spring.

Cunningham, who finished among the top 500 in the final national rankings, closed the year with a Nebraska freshman record 72.61 stroke average, including a 72.35 over 17 spring rounds. During the spring season, Cunningham produced four consecutive top-15 individual finishes, including a tie for third with a career-best 209 (-7) at the Bell Bank “Pay It Forward” Intercollegiate in Arizona in late March. He followed with a second straight top-10 finish with his tie for eighth at the Tiger Collegiate in Missouri.

Evan McDermott also returns as a major contributor to Nebraska’s lineup. The redshirt junior from Spring Lake, Mich., was NU’s most improved golfer, finishing fourth among the Huskers with a 73.44 stroke average. McDermott, who ranked among the top-650 golfers in the nation, slashed two strokes per round from his game compared to his freshman season in 2022-23, after taking a redshirt season in 2023-24.

McDermott’s consistency was significant to the Big Red’s success, as he joined Hamish Murray as the only Huskers to play all 32 rounds in NU’s lineup. McDermott’s stroke average was also the second-best by a sophomore in Husker history, trailing only Sautron’s average a year ago.

Nebraska also has several experienced contenders for lineup spots along with its top three returning players in 2025-26.

Quinn Yost has been a contributor to the lineup throughout his first three seasons in Lincoln. The senior from Farmington, N.M., owns a solid 74.55 stroke average over 47 career rounds. Yost also owns five career top-25 finishes as a Husker and will be looking to elevate his game to solidify Nebraska’s lineup.

Fellow senior Davis Johnson also brings solid experience to the table. Johnson, a fourth-year Husker from Chaska, Minn., has played in 32 career rounds and was a member of Nebraska’s lineup at the Big Ten Championship in both 2023 and 2024. As a sophomore, he owned a 74.73 stroke average over 15 rounds in 2023-24.

Sophomores James Ackerman and Jackson Benge also could be ready for breakout seasons. Ackerman produced a solid 75.17 stroke average over 12 rounds as a true freshman. The 2023 Kansas High School Class 6A Player of the Year saw a majority of his action during the fall campaign, including lineup spots in Nebraska’s first two tournaments of 2024-25.

Benge, who starred at Nebraska high school power Omaha Westside, traveled as an individual to five tournaments with the Huskers during his freshman campaign. He posted a 75.73 stroke average over 15 rounds while also serving as Nebraska’s substitute at the Big Ten Championship.

The Huskers also added a proven NCAA Division II transfer in Bryson Oots and a pair of talented freshmen with Nebraska high school 2022 state champion Thomas Bryson and 2023 Missouri state champion Caden Mickelson.

Oots joined the Huskers in late-June after three outstanding seasons at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. A two-time NCAA Midwest Regional qualifier, Oots tied for 27th at the 2025 Midwest Regional in St. Joseph, Mo.

He earned NCAA Division II PING All-Midwest Region honors for the second consecutive season as a junior at William Jewell in 2024-25. Oots produced a team-best 72.17 stroke average over 34 rounds for the Cardinals on his way to being named the GLVC Player of the Year.

Thomas Bryson, whose parents were both golfers at Nebraska, won Nebraska’s Class A state title as a freshman in 2022 before earning his fourth consecutive Super-State honor as a senior at Lincoln Southeast in 2025. He was also the 2022 Nebraska Junior Golfer of the Year.

Mickelson added a Missouri Class 5 state title in 2023 before back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2024 and 2025. He was the No. 1 recruit in Missouri and was the 2025 Kansas City metro golfer of the year as a senior at Liberty North.

The Huskers open 2025-26 at the Island Resort Invitational in Michigan (Aug. 31-Sept. 1), before traveling to the Gopher Invitational (Sept. 7-8). NU journeys to the Bearcat Invitational in Cincinnati (Sept. 15-16), before capping four straight weeks of action by playing host to the Git-R-Done Invitational at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln (Sept. 22-23). 

After a three-week break, the Big Red head to Indiana for the Purdue Fall Invitational (Oct. 13-14), before closing the fall at the Steelwood Collegiate in Loxley, Ala. (Oct. 25-26).

The Huskers open the spring back in Alabama at the Hal Williams Collegiate (Feb. 16-17),  before traveling to The Johnnie-O in St. Simons Island, Ga. (March 16-17).

The Big Red head to Arizona for the Bell Bank “Pay It Forward” Collegiate (March 23-24), before the Huskers make their way to Missouri for the Tiger Intercollegiate (April 6-7).

Nebraska closes the regular season at the Tar Heel Intercollegiate in Chapel Hill, N.C. (April 11-12), before traveling to North Plains, Ore., for the Big Ten Championship (May 1-3). NCAA Regionals are set for May 18-20 at six host sites around the nation.