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CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA — Defending national champion Auburn posted a round of 2-under 286 on Sunday to move to the top of the team leaderboard after 54 holes of the 2025 ������Ƶ Division I Men’s Golf Championships being played at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa North Course (7,528 yards/par 72).

Auburn started the day five strokes back of 36-hole leader Arizona State, but surged past the Sun Devils as senior Carson Bacha led the way with a 3-under 69, while Jackson Koivun posted a 71, Brendan Valdes, 72, while Josiah Gilbert and Cayden Pope came in at 74. Auburn (854) will go the final round on Monday with a four-stroke lead over second place Arizona State (858), and a seven-stroke lead over third place Oklahoma (861).

“We came into this week and really challenged the guys to compete in stroke play,” said Auburn head coach Nick Clinard. “We want to win (stroke play) because that possibly identifies the best team in the county. It’s a tough course with tough conditions, but so far we’ve played pretty well. We’re just blessed to have the opportunity to go out and compete tomorrow and see what we can do.”

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Monday’s fourth and final round of stroke play will include the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing team. Auburn, Arizona State, Oklahoma, Florida, Oklahoma State, Texas, Florida State, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Virginia, Brigham Young, Pepperdine and Vanderbilt secured spots on Sunday. The final team to advance will be decided in a playoff between Georgia Tech and Wake Forest that will be conducted on Monday at 8 a.m. PST. Georgia Tech and Wake Forest tied for 15th at 17-over 881 at the end of the third round. If an individual playoff is necessary to determine the nine individuals advancing, it would begin at the conclusion of the team playoff.

The final round of stroke play will tee off at 10:30 a.m. PST on Memorial Day, with the individual national champion crowned at the conclusion of play. In addition, the top eight teams will advance to match play, with the team national champion determined by a match-play format that will consist of quarterfinals and semifinals conducted on Tuesday, May 27, followed by the finals on Wednesday, May 28. GOLF Channel will begin its live coverage of the championship on Monday, broadcasting play from 6-10 p.m. EST.

Michael La Sasso of Ole Miss has the individual lead entering the final round of stroke play. With four birdies during the round, La Sasso posted a 2-under 70 on Sunday to go to 11-under 205 through 54 holes. He leads Texas A&M’s Phichaksn Maichon by two strokes, while Connor Williams will start the fourth round in third place, five strokes back.

“Golf is golf at the end of the day,” said La Sasso. “I’m not going to treat it much different than if I was going to play with my buddies on a Saturday at home. There’s not much else to do other than normal preparation tonight in order to give myself the best chance tomorrow.”

“I’m just going to play for the team, play the best I can and put the individual title aside,” said Maichon, who was the first-round leader. “If that wins, great. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. We want to get to match play and in order to do that, we had to get to Monday.”

Arizona State, which shot 11-under 277 on Saturday to take a temporary three-stroke team lead after 36 holes, shot seven-over 295 on Sunday to fall four strokes back of Auburn going into the final round of stroke play.

“In a four-round tournament, there are all types of days,” said Arizona State head coach Matt Thurmond. “Yesterday, we had a round where it all worked out. We only had six bogeys on counting scorecards. Today, it seemed like we were snake-bitten from the very start. Preston (Summerhays) hitting the flag stick, a couple of balls plugging, things that you avoid when things are going well. It was harder to get through it all today, but I thought we hung in there. They dealt with some tricky pin placements on the high birdie holes. It is only going to continue to get tougher too. We did a great job of when adversity hit, which at some point we knew it would, we responded well. It has put us in a great spot after three days. It is important for us to stay aggressive tomorrow and continue trying to improve our positioning.”

Oklahoma remains in contention despite shooting a seven-over 295 on Sunday. “We certainly weren’t at our best today, but we’re in a great spot heading into tomorrow’s round,” said Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl. “It’s a long week out here, and we played well enough on Friday and Saturday to give ourselves a chance to lock up a match play spot. We feel good about where we’re at and are looking forward to another day together.”