In little time, Chris Massoletti has shown he is capable of taking the St. Mary's Men's and Women's golf programs places. 

In his third season at the helm, Massoletti led the women to one of their best seasons in program history in 2015-16, winning the Heartland Conference for the first time in 12 years and qualifying for the NCAA South Central Regional. In addition, he led the men to within one stroke of winning the Heartland Conference themselves. Women's golfer Kelly Contreras took home All-America honors following the season.

In 2014-15, they had a similarly successful year riding the successes of then-sophomore sensation Allison Howarth and Contreras, then a freshman. 
 

THE MASSOLETTI FILE
College: Texas A&M University (2008)   Hometown: Chico, Calif.   Experience: 4th Year (all at St. Mary's)
YEAR-BY-YEAR REVIEW
Year	Team	Conf. Finish	Highlights
2013-14	Men's	4th	South Central Regional
2013-14	Women's	4th
2014-15	Men's	4th	South Central Regional
2014-15	Women's	4th
2015-16	Men's	2nd	South Central Regional
2015-16	Women's	1st	South Central Regional
Total
3 Yrs.			3 Regional Appearances (men's)
			Heartland Conf. Champion 1 Regional Appearance
			(women's)

Howarth posted the best season in school history, logging a record 75.60 stroke average while tallying a school-record six rounds of par-or-better. Contreras was right behind her teammate, posting a scoring average of 77.25, the fourth-best single-season mark in Rattler history. As a team, StMU posted the best season on the books with a 315.36 scoring average. The Rattlers finished fourth in the conference and won one tournament, the Tim Tierney Pioneer Classic, while Howarth qualified for the NCAA Super Regional, where she finished tied for 15th place.

Howarth was named to the All-Heartland Conference First Team, while Contreras netted second-team honors.

On the men's side, Massoletti returns all seven golfers from last year's squad that earned its second straight NCAA Regional appearance. St. Mary's finished fourth in the conference and 20th at regionals. 

Two years ago, Massoletti advanced his Rattlers to the regional tournament for the first time since the 2011 season where they finished tied for 12th place in the team's best regional finish since 2010.

Massoletti saw his top golfer Matt Van Winkle earn an All-Region selection, also for the first time since the 2011 season, as well as his second straight All-Conference selection to earn a No. 60 national ranking from Golfstat.
 
Fellow golfer Chris Contreras stunned in the postseason, ending in a three-way tie for first place in the Heartland Conference Championship Tournament, which he fell by just one stroke to tie for second place. His play earned him a spot on the All-Tournament team.
 
Massoletti also led the Lady Rattlers to big success in his first season, coaching a budding star in then-redshirt-freshman Allison Howarth.
 
Under Massoletti, Howarth had an outstanding first season, earning the program’s first Heartland Conference Freshman of the Year award as well as an All-Conference Second Team selection, the program’s first since the 2010 season.
 
Howarth averaged a 76.72 scoring average for the season, putting her No. 2 in the program’s single-season scoring average record.
 
As a team, the Lady Rattlers finished fourth in the Heartland Conference Championship Tournament where Howarth finished with a team-best fourth place individually to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team.  

Before becoming a Rattler, Massoletti  a volunteer assistant for the St. Edward's men's golf team for two years. There, Massoletti helped the Hilltoppers to back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances and one appearance at the National Tournament. 

Massoletti, also a vaunted private instructor, hails from Chico, Calif., where he was a NCAA Division II Second Team All-American at California State University Chico. He played his first two years of collegiate golf there before transferring to Texas A&M as a junior prior to the 2005-2006 season. After receiving his bachelor's degree in 2008, he turned professional and competed on multiple professional tours, including the Adams Tight Lies Tour, Hooters Tour, Canadian Tour and Northern California Professional Tour. He made 12 of 19 professional cuts and studied under world-renowned short-game instructor Marius Filmalter.

But even with his playing career still alive and well, Massoletti began getting the itch to give back to the game of golf around 2009. He began as an instructor at Teravista Golf Club in Round Rock, Texas; worked his way to becoming the lead director of instruction and a junior golf coach at deKeratry Golf in Austin, Texas; and started coaching on the collegiate level as a volunteer assistant at St. Edward's in 2011.