CARLSBAD, Calif. – At this time last year, something needed to change. San Diego’s Ian Maspat wrapped up a prolific ball-striking season, but his short game was killing his game. The struggles came to a head at nationals, where Maspat finished 185th out of 186 players.
So, Toreros head coach Evan Emerick stepped in with a few strong suggestions – a new LAB putter, claw putting grip and most drastically, cross-handed chipping.
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“I basically made him practice chipping out of bunkers cross-handed for a month, just to find the low point,” Emerick said.
Maspat didn’t have to chip much Friday at the NCAA Championship, but the flatstick certainly didn’t let his ball-striking down. The fifth-year senior gave himself 10 birdie looks from inside 10 feet, made seven of them and fired a first-round-leading, 6-under 66 at Omni La Costa. Maspat is tied atop the leaderboard with Arizona State’s Connor Williams and Alabama’s William Jennings.
“He’s gone from our worst putter to the best putter on our team,” added Emerick, whose 42nd-ranked team shot 2 under, tied for the second-best round of the morning wave and good for T-4 through 18 holes, six shots behind leading UCLA.
Maspat, who played high school golf at nearby Scripps Ranch and nearly won a Junior Worlds title at La Costa’s other course, has taken a circuitous route to playing for his hometown university, which is about a half hour south of Carlsbad. He originally verbally committed to Oregon, then signed and competed two seasons at Pepperdine. After transferring to San Diego three summers ago, he missed nearly six months of tournaments and had to redshirt because of right-elbow tendonitis and a minor back issue.
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After posting just two top-10s last season, the first with Emerick as head coach, Maspat took a massive step in his final season, not only racking up seven top-10s, including five straight heading into regionals, but also his first college victory in a non-individual event, the West Coast Conference Championship.
Emerick began walking every hole with Maspat after he shot 5 over in the first round of the Toreros’ home event in early March. With Maspat also finally fully buying into the Decade course strategy system that Emerick swears by, everything clicked.
“We’re something like 73 under par together since,” said Emerick, who was counting Maspat’s match-play rounds.
The partnership continued Friday at La Costa, where last year he had the same number of birdies (eight) as double bogeys or worse.
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“Evan just gives me that confirmation,” Maspat said. “He’s another set of eyes for me and another brain. I trust him and he trusts me. We talked every shot out very well today, and it just gave me the freedom to commit to the shot, and I played loose out there.”
So, how does he keep it going?
“No need to change anything,” Maspat said.
No, not this time.
Image for 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships – Rd 2
2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships – Rd 2
Live coverage of the Men’s NCAA Golf Championships in partnership with Babygrande Golf.
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