Last spring, the Notre Dame men’s golf team made a memorable postseason run in May. Under the guidance of head coach John Handrigan, the Irish reached the NCAA Tournament and headed down to Austin. There, they finished third in NCAA Regionals, advancing to the Championship for the first time since 1966.
Although the Irish didn’t return to college golf’s grandest stage in 2024-25, they made another strong push to do so. Notre Dame finished 10th in the ACC Championships, punching a ticket to the NCAA Regionals in Tallahassee, Florida. The Irish ended up in ninth place, falling four positions short of another advancement.
In all of their postseason action, the Irish leaned on their experiences from 2024.
“I think the best thing they learned was last year we were young, and we're still young, and the guys that are coming back, they know how to get through regionals,” Handrigan said heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament. “The guys have been there, they've done it, they know how to do it, and that experience goes a long way, and they're comfortable being in that environment now, which is nice.”
One player in particular has looked quite comfortable in the 2025 postseason, which he’ll continue at the NCAA Championships next week. Building on a stellar freshman campaign, sophomore Jacob Modleski has hit his stride in April and May. However, the going wasn’t always easy for Modleski, who produced a handful of top-15 finishes throughout the regular season but couldn’t find that breakthrough victory.
“He’s not a player that gets down on himself when he doesn’t win,” Handrigan said of Modleski. “He’s a player that looks back and finds out ways to get better and finds out what he's learned, and he’s done a great job with that.”
Modleski's patience was rewarded at the ACC Championships in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Indiana native became Notre Dame’s first ACC Men’s Golf Individual Champion, delivering an epic closeout to his third and final round. Going 4-under par on the back nine, Modleski birdied both the 17th and 18th holes, clinching the individual victory on his final putt of the tournament.
“The back nine was amazing,” Handrigan recalled. “I got to walk every hole with him the last seven, and birdieing 17 and 18 to win an ACC Championship in one of the best fields in college golf is pretty amazing.”
Modleski would do it again at this week’s NCAA Regionals in Tallahassee, birdieing the 54th hole to advance to the National Championship in Carlsbad, California. He’ll also compete among the country’s premier collegiate golfers at the Arnold Palmer Cup, played on June 5–7 at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina.
Sophomore Rocco Salvitti and freshman Mike Qiu were closest to Modleski on the leaderboard throughout the spring. Salvitti, along with junior Nate Stevens, led the Irish to one of their two team wins in the fall, recording a top-five finish at the Fighting Irish Classic in South Bend. Notre Dame’s other team victory occurred in September at the inaugural Canadian Collegiate Invitational, which brought Handrigan back to his home province of Canada.
Looking ahead to 2024-25, the Irish are in a prime position to compete more seriously with the nation’s best. Notre Dame will only lose one golfer, senior Owen Mullen, who dealt with injuries and did not play much this year. Otherwise, the Irish have three rising sophomores, three rising juniors and two rising seniors for next season.
“I just want to continue to have teams that we can build on that and continue to compete at what I call the elite level,” Handrigan said. “At Notre Dame, there's a standard in place of excellence, and we like to be at that excellence every year.”
“Every year is different, but if you can compete and continue to be in the national championship race and make nationals like we are year in, year out, then we’re in the right spot. But there also comes a point in time where you want to take the next step and win one of those, and I think with the players that we have on the team now and the new classes that we have coming in next year, we’re going to continue to get better.”
