Last May played out as a special month for the Notre Dame men’s golf team. The Irish, a seventh-place finisher in the ACC Championship, entered the NCAA Austin Regional in Texas as a No. 6 seed. There, they scored an unlikely top-three finish, advancing to an NCAA Championship for the first time since 1966.
Even more magic ensued at the NCAA Championship. Palmer Jackson, playing in his final competition with Notre Dame, took eighth place at NCAAs. His finish marked the highest national placement from a Notre Dame golfer in program history. Jackson also ended his Irish career with Division I PING All-American Honorable Mention selection.
Now, Jackson is out of the picture. Third-year head coach John Handrigan and the Irish must work to replace a golfer integral to the program since 2019. And while they have plenty of time between September and May to identify new options, that process begins very soon with the fall season.
What Notre Dame does bring back for 2024 is a strong group of returning talent. Three of the team’s top five NCAA Tournament contributors are back, and the list begins with high-upside sophomore Jacob Modleski. A native of Noblesville, Indiana, Modleski flashed his potential just a couple of weeks into his freshman fall, claiming fourth place in the Gopher Invitational. He truly found his game when the spring season began, tying for third in the Invitational at the Ford and winning the Johnnie-O at Sea Island. Modleski only continued his success into the postseason, carding top-15 finishes in both the ACC Championship and the NCAA Austin Regional. No Irish men’s golfer performed better than he did at the conference tournament.
Another sophomore, Rocco Salvitti, returns as a huge reason for Notre Dame’s previous NCAA Championship appearance. Salvitti played to a team-high ninth-place finish as a freshman in the regional round, coming out of nowhere to lead the Irish. The Pennsylvanian received plenty of first-year reps on the course last season and can take a step forward by playing with more consistency. As a freshman, Salvitti notched three regular-season top-15 finishes at the Fighting Irish Classic, St. Andrew's Collegiate and the Watersound Invitational but did not crack the top 23 outside of those events.
Notre Dame’s oldest returner from last year’s postseason, junior Nate Stevens, played some of his best golf down the stretch in the spring. Stevens collected top-17 finishes in three of Notre Dame’s final four regular-season competitions, placing as high as eighth in the Johnnie-O at Sea Island. The Minnesotan tied for 12th at the Austin Regional and finished 21 over par in the NCAA Championships.
Three other Irish returners have opportunities to step into larger roles beginning this fall. Sophomore Christopher Bagnall and junior Calen Sanderson competed as part of the team in a combined four tournaments last regular season but did not appear in the postseason run. The oldest member of the team, senior Owen Mullen, did not compete last season but took part in eight tournaments two years ago in 2022-23.
Last season, Notre Dame opened its fall season with a bang, winning the Michigan State-hosted Folds of Honor Collegiate. The Irish ended their fall at the St. Andrew’s Collegiate Invitational in Scotland before concluding the spring regular season with four consecutive top-three finishes.
This year, they will again open with the Folds of Honor Collegiate, scheduled to run from Sept. 9-11 in Grand Haven, Michigan. A week later, they will go international once more to the inaugural Canadian Collegiate Invitational in Ontario. There, Notre Dame will take part in the first NCAA Division I men’s golf tournament to be played in Canada. To round out the fall, the Irish will head to Northwestern for the Windon Memorial Classic (Sept. 29-30), host the Fighting Irish Classic (Oct. 6-7) and travel to North Carolina for the Williams Cup (Oct. 20-22).
