Sautron Earns NCAA Bid, First-Team All-Big Ten Honors

Nebraska's Rudy Sautron became the first Husker men's golfer since 2017 to earn an NCAA Regional berth when the field for the 2026 NCAA Men’s Golf Regional Championships were announced live on the Golf Channel on Wednesday, May 6.

Sautron, a junior from Reunion Island, France, who became the first Husker in history to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors earlier Wednesday, heard his name called as one of 45 individuals to be selected for NCAA Regional play. He will be one of five individuals in the Marana Regional at The Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Ariz., where he will compete Monday, May 18 through Wednesday, May 20.

Sautron became the first Husker men's golfer since Michael Colgate in 2017 to qualify for NCAA Regional play. Sautron joins Brandon Crick (2010), Andrew Wyatt (2011) and Scott Willman (2012) as Husker NCAA Regional qualifiers since 2010.

Sautron will be part of the 14-team field that includes defending national champion Oklahoma State along with LSU, Arizona, Alabama, Duke, Clemson, San Diego State, Arkansas State, West Virginia, Florida Gulf Coast, Saint Mary's (Calif.), Tarleton State, North Dakota State and Iona, along with individuals Dylan Teeter (UTEP), Trevor Algya (Loyola Marymount), Veikka Viskari (Missouri) and Javier Delgadiollo (New Mexico State).

The top five teams and the top individual from a non-advancing team at each regional will advance to the NCAA Championships at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. (May 29-June 3).

Earlier Wednesday, Sautron became the first Nebraska golfer since Brady Schnell (Big 12, 2007) to earn first-team all-conference honors. Sautron is the ninth-highest ranked golfer in the Big Ten, coming in at No. 101 nationally heading into NCAA Regional play.

In 2026, Sautron shattered his own school record with a 70.21 stroke average while competing in the Nebraska lineup for all 38 rounds this season. In his first season at Nebraska in 2024-25, Sautron established the school record with a 71.70 average.

In 2025-26, Sautron posted 23 subpar rounds, including a school-record 62 (-8) on his way to sharing a tournament title at the Hal Williams Collegiate (Feb. 15-16). 

He set three Nebraska individual tournament scoring records on the season on his way to a school-record-tying three individual titles, beginning with a 200 (-13) to win Nebraska's Git-R-Done Invitational at Firethorn (Sept. 22-23). He smashed that record with a 195 (-15) on his way to a title at the Hal Williams Collegiate in Semmes, Ala., to open the spring, before firing a school-record (-18) with a 198 to win The Johnnie-O at St. Simons Island, Ga. (March 9-10).

All three of Sautron's winning tournament performances earned him Big Ten Golfer-of-the-Week honors during the season.

Sautron capped his regular season by tying for 17th with a 212 (+2) to help Nebraska to an eighth-place finish at the 18-team Big Ten Championship in North Plains, Ore. (May 1-3). It was Sautron's 11th consecutive top-25 individual finish of the season.

In addition to Sautron's all-conference award, sophomore James Ackerman was named Nebraska's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner for 2025-26.

Nebraska's First-Team All-Conference Golfers (Since 1997)
Steve Friesen (1997)
Jamie Rogers (1998)
Jamie Rogers (1999)
Steve Friesen (1999)
Scott Gutschewski (1999)
Brady Schnell (2007)
Rudy Sautron (2026)

First Team All-Big Ten (2025-26)
Jack Buchanan, USC
Jaden Dumdumaya, USC
Max Herendeen, Illinois
Dane Huddleston, Illinois
Josh Kim, UCLA
Baylor Larrabee, UCLA
Trey Marrion, Illinois
Rudy Sautron, Nebraska
Daniel Svärd, Northwestern
Ryan Voois, Illinois

Second Team All-Big Ten
Sam Easterbrook, Purdue
Jacob Goode, Washington
Emil Borrestuen Herstad, Washington
Finn Koelle, Washington
Aiden Krafft, Oregon
Emil Riegger, Maryland
Ryan Shellberg, Iowa
Rowan Sullivan, Northwestern
Freddie Turner, Illinois
Chun-Ta Wu, Purdue

All-Freshman Team
Sebastian Desoisa, Oregon
Emil Borrestuen Herstad, Washington
Josh Kim, UCLA
Tyler Loree, UCLA
Lucas Politano, Rutgers

Sportsmanship Award Honorees
Illinois: Ethan Wilson
Indiana: Caleb Schnarr
Iowa: Chance Rinkol
Maryland: Griffin Barke
Michigan: Nilay Naik
Minnesota: Jack Wetzel
Michigan State: Ashton McCulloch
Nebraska: James Ackerman
Northwestern: Jeremy Chen
Ohio State: Topher Reed
Oregon: TBD
Penn State: Tim Peters
Purdue: Kentaro Nanayama
Rutgers: Luke Koenig
UCLA: Matt Yamin
USC: Jaden Dumdumaya
Washington: Grady Millar
Wisconsin: Spencer Turtz