Rollie Massimino’s grandson is making a name for himself on the golf course

Roland Massimino could be competing at a golf tournament anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, whether it’s near his home in Jupiter, Fla., or in Bucaramanga, Colombia, when someone will see the name on his golf bag and ask, “Are you related to … ?”

“I know exactly what they’re going to say when I see their face, and sometimes I’ll answer their question before they even ask it,” said Massimino, the grandson of the late Villanova basketball coach and College Basketball Hall of Famer Rollie Massimino.

“It’s a place of pride because my grandfather was such a special guy. It’s actually really cool. It’s like everywhere you go, even other countries, people will ask if you’re related to Rollie Massimino. It’s pretty cool to say, ‘Yeah, that’s my grandfather,’ because you see the support that he had and how many people loved him and loved what he did. It doesn’t really ever get old.”

He said people will ask if he’s watched the 1985 national championship win over Georgetown and he’ll reply, “Yeah, I watched it a million times.”

Massimino, 24, won the first 72-hole tournament of his career on Oct. 10, firing rounds of 65 and 66 over his last 36 holes and prevailing in a playoff to capture the Dev Series final in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, and earn full-time status for the entire 2021-22 PGA Tour Latinoamerica season, which begins Dec. 2.

A graduate of New Hope-Solebury High School who played collegiately at Kansas State, Massimino trailed by as many as five strokes in the final round but surged into a tie as the leader, Jaime Lopez Rivarola, faded on the back nine. He won with a par on the second extra hole when Rivarola double bogeyed.

“As far as being able to close out a tournament, shooting those two numbers when it really mattered was pretty cool,” he said. “It’s something you kind of dream of.

“That was kind of the first win that I’ve had, really ever. I never won a tournament in college. I won some pro events, but they were 18-hole events so that doesn’t really count, I don’t think. So I was just thinking about how it kind of finally got over the hump a little bit that way.”

Massimino, who plays out of Lumberville, Pa., took up golf at age 9 or 10, but basketball was his main sport as he entered high school. However, after playing as a freshman, he started to get serious about golf, realizing “I was going to be better at golf than I was at basketball,” and decided to focus his attention there.

He said his grandfather loved the move to golf because “doing anything where you’re competing was important to him.” He recalled later attending the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club with him when the elder Massimino came up with an idea.

“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a letter every day for a month, just a little blip of motivation here and there,’ ” he said. “I have 30 letters from him with words of advice. I still have those and I still read them when I need a little motivation. He was always willing to help somebody out with a little advice or motivation when somebody needed it.

“It’s just that mindset as far as not backing down and knowing what you have, knowing you can do it, go compete, stuff like that. We were always playing sports. He lived in Florida for the last 30 years of his life [he died in 2017], so we’d come down and he’d always take us to basketball courts or golf courses, always competing. Even if it was something small, you were always competing, and that translates to golf as well.”

With his father and his brother caddying for him at times, Massimino played eight events on the 2020-21 PGA Tour Latinoamerica, a season that was extended for 18 months because of postponements due to COVID-19. He feels like he’s getting used to the travel and has picked up some Spanish.

Having full status this year gives him a place to play in every tournament, taking some pressure off. He is proud of the fact that all his hard work has paid off.

“Every step of the way I’ve kind of been able to figure out how to compete and how to get better, so it’s no different here,” he said. “I think I just kept that confidence where I know that if I keep doing what I’m doing and keep putting in the work, that it’ll pay off and I’ll get there. It’s come to fruition a little bit here, so I’m happy about it.”