The UCLA men’s golf team is set to begin its 2025-26 season at the Sahalee Players Championship, held at Sahalee Country Club in Seattle, Washington, on September 6 and 7. This marks the fourth year for head coach Armen Kirakossian at the helm of the program.
The two-day event will feature a 54-hole stroke play format, with competition taking place on the club’s “South” and “North” nines. Eleven college programs are participating, along with individual competitors from the U.S. National Development Program. The tournament will include 36 holes on Saturday and 18 holes on Sunday. Live scoring will be available online at Scoreboard, powered by Clippd.
UCLA’s starting lineup includes senior Kyle An, junior Alex Papayoanou, sophomores Logan Kim and Baylor Larrabee, and freshman Tyler Loree. Junior Luciano Conlan will compete as an individual.
“Anytime you get to start the season, it’s exciting,” Kirakossian said. “I love team golf and college golf. It’s better when it is going on and these tournaments are happening. This is what our guys train and practice for all their lives, to play tournament golf – and here we are before our first tournament. There is a lot of natural excitement built into that alone.”
Kirakossian noted changes in team composition following the graduation of Omar Morales and Pablo Ereño, both now playing professional golf. He highlighted senior Kyle An’s progress during his junior year and recognized Baylor Larrabee’s accolade as Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season.
“As far as our team makeup, it’s no mystery that Omar Morales and Pablo Ereño were major factors for us these last few years, and both of those guys are gone and graduated and now playing professional golf. With this group, there is excitement to see who steps up and plays a major role for us – that’s fun. Kyle An will be a senior and he has been trending in a nice direction during his junior year. Baylor Larrabee, now a sophomore, is coming off being named the Freshman of the Year in the Big Ten. We’ve got some new guys in the program, so I think more than anything, it’s fun to see who will take that next step.
“We have nine guys on our team this year, and qualifying was extremely competitive, probably some of the most competitive qualifying I’ve seen during my time at UCLA. That helps build into the natural excitement for the season. You’ve got competition, and competition breeds improvement and helps guys to push to the next level. We will lean into that. That should be a general theme of this year, with our guys competing really hard to make the trip and get on that flight to be at the next tournament. It’s often said, and I generally believe, that your practices should be harder than the competition. That’s a good thing. We’ll try to do our best to simulate competition at home amongst each other. It is nice that we have a deep team with nine competitive players. We can help to breed that competition at home. I’m excited to see how that can translate into our tournament performance. We’re looking forward to this trip, and it should be a lot of fun.”
This weekend’s event is one of four fall competitions scheduled for UCLA men’s golf this season; last fall they began their schedule at The Tindall in Sammamish, Washington where they finished fifth out of fourteen teams.
In review of last season (2024-25), UCLA advanced to NCAA Championships for the first time since 2018 but finished twentieth out of thirty teams after missing advancement past the initial cut round.
Pablo Ereño finished sixth individually at NCAA Championships—the highest finish by any Bruin since Patrick Cantlay tied for fourth in 2012—and was joined by Morales as collegiate medalists during last season’s campaign.
Both Ereño (Big Ten Men’s Golfer of the Year) and Larrabee (Big Ten Freshman of the Year) received conference honors; head coach Armen Kirakossian was named Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading UCLA through its inaugural Big Ten season where they won conference championships by one stroke over Illinois under challenging weather conditions.
Morales secured victory at Big Ten Championships with an even-par final round while Ereño earned his first collegiate medal earlier in fall play.
Three newcomers join UCLA’s roster: sophomore Logan Kim—who transferred from Stanford University after averaging 72.7 over ten events as a freshman—alongside freshmen Josh Kim (De La Salle High School graduate with multiple regional titles) and Tyler Loree (from Maui; winner of state amateur championship).
Loree became eligible for this year’s U.S Amateur Championship after winning Hawai’i State Amateur Men’s Overall Division title; Josh Kim received national recognition through awards such as Byron Nelson International Junior Award due to achievements both academically and athletically.
