This post was updated June 3 at 11:25 p.m.
The Bruins concluded their season just short of the mountaintop.
No. 7 seed UCLA men’s golf placed second at the NCAA championship in Carlsbad, California, its best result since winning its second-ever national title in 2008. From Friday to Wednesday, the Bruins played well over 500 holes of golf at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, passing two cuts in stroke play, escaping a playoff and defeating two opponents in match play before falling to No. 1 seed Auburn on Wednesday night.
In the individual rankings – scored from the opening stroke play section – sophomore Baylor Larrabee finished sixth with a 9-under 276, matching former Bruin Pablo Ereño’s finish last season. Larrabee entered the event as the 90th-ranked collegiate player in the nation, but his result – just the Bruins’ second top-10 individual in over a decade – moved him all the way up to 61st.
Coach Armen Kirakossian said Larrabee’s performance showed a vast improvement from his showing at nationals last season, particularly in his mentality when facing down tough situations. Larrabee was also happy with his growth but was quick to focus on room for improvement.
“I’m proud of it – it was a great example of how much better I’ve gotten,” Larrabee said. “I still got work to do. I want to be the guy that’s winning at the end of the week, not just getting sixth place.”
Stroke play
The Bruins started the event hot, shooting 8-under in the opening round to take first place with a four-stroke lead over the field. Four opponents pushed the pace the following round, scoring more than 10-under and pushing UCLA back to fourth place.
Holding steady in that position, the team notched a 1-over second day and a 1-under third day, anchored by a third-round 4-under 68 from Larrabee. With that, UCLA slid comfortably past the first cut as one of the top 15 squads, surpassing its performance from last year and needing only to maintain their position to advance to match play.
The door to that next stage appeared wide open as the team entered the final stretch at 4-under through the first 13 holes of the fourth round, sitting comfortably ahead of the cut line. It seemed, however, that the golf gods were not going to let the Bruins off so easily – holes 14 to 17 brought six bogeys, a double and a triple, plummeting the team down the leaderboard to a tie for eighth place.
The team salvaged the round with three pars and a birdie on 18 to avoid instant elimination but was forced to face a four-team playoff with the other squads tied for eighth for the two spots available. Across five holes played simultaneously, the Bruins found four pars and one bogey, and misfires off the tee from No. 18 Tennessee and No. 10 North Carolina made the 1-over score good enough to move forward.
“(The playoff) got them right in the mindset and zone that they needed to be to have success in the match play portion, because those matches are so intense, and they got a little taste of it,” Kirakossian said. “We’re already a tight-knit team, but when you got five different guys playing, and that celebration – it was just this big boost of energy.”
When stroke play was all said and done, junior Alex Papayoanou had tied at 46th, freshman Tyler Loree had tied 49th, and freshman Josh Kim and senior An had tied for 61st, leading to a team total of 2-under 1150. As the No. 30 team in the country going into the event, the Bruins were the only squad outside the top 15 to advance, and Kirakossian and his players celebrated their underdog win on the course as the sun set. The coach told UCLA Athletics he was fortunate to have a team that fought so hard. He added that the Bruins truly play for one another, never letting up no matter what the day brings.
Match play
Less than 12 hours after the playoff, now-No. 7 seed UCLA was back at the tee box, this time competing in a match play bracket in the quarterfinal of the tournament. Its opponent was host No. 2 seed Texas, the second-ranked team in stroke play and a squad that features four of the top 20 amateur golfers on the planet.
“We know how good we are, other people might not, but getting to go compete against these guys is such a great opportunity,” Larrabee said. “Even though we were underdogs, we felt comfortable there and confident in the work we put in this season.”
Early losses came as Loree and Kim fell 4&3 and 3&2, respectively, but every other match went down to at least the 18th hole. The tide turned as both Larrabee and An held on to late leads to both win 1UP, and Papayoanou took Longhorn Daniel Bennett to two playoff holes, finding eagle to Bennett’s birdie on hole 20 to help secure the victory for the Bruins 3-2 and push the team to its furthest point in the postseason since the current format launched in 2009.
Papayoanou said to UCLA Athletics that even when things looked dire – he was down three holes with five left to play – he persevered, trusting his putting and his short game to keep him competitive.
After taking down Texas in the morning, UCLA faced an afternoon semifinal matchup against No. 6 seed Arizona, which had bested No. 3 seed Vanderbilt in the quarterfinal. The Bruins were looking at their sixth round of golf in five days.
“These afternoon ones, I’ve been in them before,” Kirakossian told UCLA Athletics. “They’re so tough. You are gassed physically, you’re gassed mentally, emotionally, everything. It’s just, can you dig a little deeper?”
It seemed they could. While the Texas matchup was back and forth, UCLA took an early lead against Arizona and held it, with three Bruins taking victories alongside one loss, leaving one pair on the course tied after 17 holes and winning the match 3.5-1.5. Their reward was a shot at the national title against No. 1 seed Auburn, a team that’s held on to the top ranking nationally since March 11 and won five events across the regular season.
“We don’t get here this far without how much they care for each other, for the program and for UCLA,” Kirakossian said. “Just a group of really gutty guys that have big hearts and are willing to compete and give it everything.”
The final
The first pair out in the match against Auburn – 2024’s national champion – was Papayoanou and Tiger Logan Reilly. Papayoanou entered the match as the only Bruin undefeated in match play but opened with double bogey and a loss. He brought it back to even on the second hole, though, and kept it steady through the opening third of play before dropping back on seven.
Larrabee was paired with Jackson Koivun, the top-ranked player in the country and the first player to win the Haskins Award – given annually to the most outstanding collegiate golfer – twice since Phil Mickelson in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Loree faced a fellow freshman, selected as the best in the SEC, in Jake Albert.
The last day’s beginning brought tight competition. As the leading pair approached the turn, the Bruins were down 4-1, although no Auburn player was ahead by more than one hole and one of the bouts was tied.
UCLA then gained some momentum, and as Kim birdied the sixth to go 1UP over Josiah Gilbert, Papayoanou scrambled to save par on nine against a Reilly bogey to bring his match even.
A series of poor shots led to Auburn’s Cayden Pope conceding the sixth hole to An, tying that match score. The teams continued to throw blows back and forth, but things started to swing back in Auburn’s favor around the match’s midpoint, as the Tigers were 3UP, 2UP and 1UP in three of the five contests.
“Auburn got on a little run there on seven, eight and 11,” Kirakossian said. “They were hitting really good shots to really difficult pins and making birdies on holes that frankly, all week, people were not making birdies on. You can’t do much about that.”
Things only looked more dire for the Bruins as the last pair hit the 10th hole, going down 4.5.-.5 and being more than a hole behind in three contests. UCLA then made a push, as Larrabee chipped in to get within two holes, An’s birdie brought his deficit to only one and Kim got back to even off a bogey from his opponent.
Kim continued his success, getting to 1UP on the 12th to bring the score to 3.5-1.5. UCLA struggled to make progress across the other matchups, however, and Auburn managed to hold or extend its leads as the holes stacked up.
The first pairing to end was Loree’s, who fell 5&3 after finishing double bogey-bogey. Larrabee went next at 4&3, and the final loss came from Papayoanou, 1UP on the last hole to seal the match at 4-1. An was left on the course down four, while Kim ended 3UP at the 14th to conclude the Bruins’ six-day run in Carlsbad.
A victorious Auburn squad celebrated on the course, basking in its second national championship win in three years.
But, with the loss only hours behind them, the Bruins had already set their sights on next year.
“This is great for momentum, and it’s great for the guys’ experience, but it’s just part of their learning and building and growth process,” Kirakossian said. “Our ultimate goal is to get back in this situation, but we’re still going to have to just show up next year and re-earn everything. That’ll be the message to the guys over the summer – if you want to be back here, it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”
