University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Auburn
UCLA Men’s Golf Falls to Top-Seeded Auburn in NCAA Championship
June 03, 2026 | Men's Golf
CARLSBAD, Calif. – The No. 7-seed UCLA men's golf team fell to No. 1-seed Auburn in the finals of the 2026 NCAA Championships on Wednesday afternoon, 3-0.
Auburn won the first three points before the remaining two matches were called after 14 holes had been completed. UCLA last won the NCAA title in 2008 and finished this tournament with its best finish in 18 years.
The Bruins had advanced to Wednesday's match play final after taking down Texas in the quarterfinals on Tuesday morning and Arizona in the semifinals. The Bruins had moved on to the championship final for the first time since the NCAA reconfigured the tournament format to include match play in 2009.
UCLA was playing for the opportunity to win its third NCAA title in program history on Wednesday and battled with Auburn throughout the afternoon. Both UCLA and Auburn were playing the course for a sixth-consecutive days, with four straight days of stroke play before Tuesday's day-long affair of match play. The Bruins battled with Auburn throughout the afternoon under mostly sunny skies.
"I think that we got off to a bit of a rough start, I mean, nerves are normal," UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian. "This is the first time that our guys have been in the match play portion and the first time that they have been in the national championship finals. We came out a little nervous and gave them some holes early. Against a team like that, you just cannot do that and you can't get away with it. Auburn continued to just play awesome, and I thought our guys were solid. They steadied the ship a little bit. We were keeping some matches close. But eventually, Auburn got on a little bit of a run on 7, 8 and 11, where they were just hitting really good shots and really difficult pins. They made birdies on holes that, frankly, people all week were not making birdies on. You just can't do much about that."
Baylor Larrabee was up against No. 1-ranked Jackson Koivun of Auburn and held his own throughout the afternoon. The sophomore was three down heading to the 12th hole, where he chipped in to take the hole, taking a point back for the Bruins. Koivun led by two with six holes to go. Kouivan eventually took the point for Auburn.
Josh Kim earned the Bruins lone win on the day, taking down Auburn's Josiah Gilbert. After being down 1 point on the 10th hole, Kim rattled off wins of four holes in a row to take a 3UP lead after the 14th hole.
In the first pairing, Alex Papayoanou went stroke for stroke with Auburn's Logan Reilly, as neither player was up more than one point throughout the afternoon. The pairing came down to the final hole, where Reilly earned the win by paring the final hole to give Auburn the title.
Wednesday's Final – Match Results
Auburn won three points to clinch the match, 3-0
(Auburn) Logan Reilly def. (UCLA) Alex Papayoanou, 1UP
(Auburn) Jake Albert def. (UCLA) Tyler Loree, 5&3
(Auburn) Jackson Koivun def. (UCLA) Baylor Larrabee, 4&3
Matches that were not completed, once Auburn had won three points
(UCLA) Josh Kim vs. (Auburn) Josiah Gilbert, (Kim 3UP, after 14 holes)
(Auburn) Cayden Pope vs. Kyle An (UCLA), (Pope 4UP, after 14 holes)
