![\"Junior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/sp.mgolf_.wrap_.11.1.26.courtesy.B.jpg\")
Junior Baylor Larrabee watches his putt. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)<\/p>\nThe Bruins rounded off their fall season in a hotly contested match play event.<\/p>\n
UCLA men\u2019s golf fell 3-2 to Arizona in the consolation round of the East Lake Cup on Wednesday, following a 3-2 loss to No. 1 Oklahoma State on Tuesday in the match play semifinal. The end of the 2026 campaign came with those two contests, which followed a stroke play round at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta that saw the Bruins finish third out of four teams with an 8-under 280. <\/p>\n
The four teams in the event \u2013 including No. 3 Auburn \u2013 received invites as the four semifinalists at last year\u2019s national championship, where the Bruins finished second to the Tigers. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you\u2019re playing against the best competition on the best golf courses, that\u2019s where you want to be,\u201d coach Armen Kirakossian said. \u201cBeing around great players is always an advantage. Helps you get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stroke play score for the Bruins \u2013 five strokes behind the leading Tigers \u2013 was driven by junior Baylor Larrabee, who carded a 4-under 68. Sophomore Josh Kim was one shot behind and was also the only Bruin to win both his match play contests. <\/p>\n
Junior Baylor Larrabee watches his putt. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)<\/p>\n
Kim said the match play format works in his favor, adding that he tries to stick to his game plan while allowing his opponent to stumble and make a mistake. Larrabee said the event required a change of mentality and was good preparation for the match play rounds to eventually come at the national championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really fun experience,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI learned a lot of new things and some areas for me to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCLA\u2019s performance was hurt by a sudden illness that affected sophomore Tyler Loree midway through the match against Oklahoma State, Kirakossian said. Loree forfeited his head-to-head against the Cowboys\u2019 Gaven Lane, 8&7. <\/p>\n
Senior Alex Papayoanou \u2013 who fell 5&3 to Preston Stout, the No. 1-ranked male amateur golfer in the world, in the Oklahoma State match \u2013 was awarded the Tom Cousins Award at the event. The award, named after the man who purchased and restored the East Lake Golf Club in the late 1990s, recognizes academic success and service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what the Tom Cousins Award is all about \u2013 somebody who gives back to their community, is trying to help grow the game and trying to help improve other people,\u201d Kirakossian said. \u201cAlex does that in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
The East Lake Cup marks the end of over a month of middling results \u2013 before the event, UCLA\u2019s best finish of the year was eighth. Kirakossian said the team needed to turn up the intentionality of practice over the break to be best prepared for spring play.<\/p>\n
The Bruins will return to action in late January at the Southwestern Invitational.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of hard work this offseason,\u201d Larrabee said. \u201cFocusing on my swing, making sure everything\u2019s fundamentally back in the spot that it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bruins rounded off their fall season in a hotly contested match play event. UCLA men\u2019s golf fell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-902673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}