POST-MATCH QUOTES
No. 1-seed Auburn 3, No. 7-seed UCLA 0
Carlsbad, Calif. (Omni La Costa Resort & Spa)
National Championship Match
June 3, 2026
UCLA Head Coach Armen Kirakossian
on the challenges of today’s match and facing a very good Auburn team
“Yeah, they played amazing today. They are a great team, and on top of that, they played awesome today.”
on what he saw on the course and how today’s match unfolded
“I think that we got off to a bit of a rough start. I mean, nerves are normal. 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.”
on UCLA’s success in this tournament and advancing to the final match
“I think it says a lot about our guys’ heart and buy-in to what we are doing and what we are trying to build. That’s part of my message that I just told the guys. We do not get here this far, without how much they cared for each other, for the program and for UCLA. So that is what I think it shows. It’s a group of really gutty guys that have big hearts and are willing to compete and give it everything all the time.”
on Josh Kim winning his match as a freshman and his bright future
“Well, our future is obviously really exciting when you have two freshmen like Josh Kim and Tyler Loree and sophomore Baylor Larrabee. We are excited about what we have moving forward. I know that they’re going to be really hungry to get themselves back in this position.”
on sophomore Baylor Larrabee and where he’s made the most improvement
“His mentality, I mean, he’s grown so much, and there is so much maturity on the golf course and controlling his emotion. He’s not letting bad shots get in his way of having good rounds. He understands that he doesn’t need to have his ‘A’ game to shoot good scores. I could tell that when he got to the course this year, he was just a different person. Last year, his mind was a little bit spiraling, and he thought that the moment was a little too big for him and he was chasing pins. This year, he was so disciplined the entire time. He never got rattled. There were multiple times where I could see he was in a tough situation, a tough break, and he handled it like a champ. It was not shocking to me that he finished top 10 in this tournament.”
on having such a young team and if this success really raises the level of expectation for next season
“We have a consistent message that every day, every shot and every round is a new one. So yes, this is great for momentum and for our guys’ experience, but this is just part of their learning and building and growth process. But our team’s ultimate goal is to get back to this situation. But we will have to show up next year and re-earn everything, just like we have had to do this year. That will be the message to the guys over the summer, it’s, ‘Hey if you want to be back here [in this championship], it’s going to take a lot of hard work and it doesn’t matter next year, when we are in regionals that we were in this position, we’ll still have to get through regionals and go through what we did in stroke play.’ Yeah, it is a continual process but there is no doubt that this process will help them grow. This will accelerate their growth process for sure.”
on Monday’s final round of stroke play and that turning into a bit of a roller coaster experience
“I always believe that everything happens for a reason. While in that moment, I didn’t understand what that reason was, I think that by dropping those strokes and putting us into that playoff, it kind of put our guys on edge. It put our guys into a hyper-intense and competitive zone that kind of prepared them for match play. By putting them on edge, it got them into the mindset and the zone that they needed to be in to have success in the match-play portion. Those matches are so intense and they kind of got a little taste of it. And two, the unity. I mean, we were already a tight-knit team, but when you’ve got five guys playing and that celebration, it just felt like this big boost of energy. I think that’s what spurred us on to be able to take on a team like Texas and then Arizona.”
on what the development of these players and of this team means to him
“We won an event in the fall, we won the Big Ten Championships, we had two wins coming in here. Last year, we did make it through regionals and into nationals, so we’ve been building. But we did not make it past the stroke play portion. Yeah, it’s a nice progression. You make it through last year, and you get to nationals and then you don’t have the success that we wanted. And then this year, we got back and we made it a lot further. Again, I never take these moments for granted. Like I’ve said, we will have to go and do it again next year. We’ll have to re-earn everything, but it is certainly a nice upward trajectory, for sure.”
UCLA sophomore Baylor Larrabee
on his assessment of what he saw on the golf course this afternoon
“I’d say that I got some work to do. Jackson Koivun is an unbelievable player. He’s a great person. He showed me the level that it takes to get your PGA Tour card at 21 years old. So I’d say that I’ve got some work to do over the offseason, but I am excited for it. That’s how I would assess it.”
on how proud he’s been this week of UCLA’s postseason run
“I’m so proud of the guys, You can’t do what we did in match play without a team effort. Alex Papayoanou came up so big in those two matches [on Tuesday]. Everyone came out and won a match against two unbelievable teams in Texas, who I think is the second-ranked team in the country, and Arizona, which we lost to in the Copper Cup. Just so grateful for the guys – you can’t do this without them.”
on where he believes he took the greatest steps forward during his sophomore season
“Yeah, for sure, I’d say that it’s a lot about maturity and not getting as caught up in every shot. It’s also about maturity in my game. I have gotten a lot stronger, hitting the ball farther, hitting the ball better in general. To come out here, and there were a lot more pins that I felt I could attack. Instead of playing scared golf, I felt like I was able to play offense on a lot of spots. But the maturity in my game both with physical and the maturity mentally, just understanding how challenging this place is and what it takes to have a successful result.”
on having a team with some young players, himself as a sophomore and some freshmen coming back
“It makes me super excited, in the fact that this season was supposed to be a rebuilding year for us. We lost Pablo and Omar, two top-15 players in the world. And we were able to come out here, despite the struggles that we had in the fall and the early spring, and prove ourselves and prove who we all are as players and people. Yeah, it just makes me so excited. Those two [freshmen] are so unbelievably skilled and talented and just great teammates, in general. I can’t say enough positive things about them. It’s great and we have just got to all make the right steps in the offseason.”
on having made strides on his game and his success this week in stroke play
“Obviously, I am proud of it. I felt like it was a great example of how much better I have gotten. But I still feel like I’ve got work to do. I want to be the guy that’s winning it at the end of the week and not just getting sixth place. I mean, there is a lot of work to get there, and there are so many factors that can go on during the week. But I am proud of it, but I also feel like I’ve got some work to do.”
No. 1-seed Auburn 3, No. 7-seed UCLA 0
Carlsbad, Calif. (Omni La Costa Resort & Spa)
National Championship Match
June 3, 2026
UCLA Head Coach Armen Kirakossian
on the challenges of today’s match and facing a very good Auburn team
“Yeah, they played amazing today. They are a great team, and on top of that, they played awesome today.”
on what he saw on the course and how today’s match unfolded
“I think that we got off to a bit of a rough start. I mean, nerves are normal. 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.”
on UCLA’s success in this tournament and advancing to the final match
“I think it says a lot about our guys’ heart and buy-in to what we are doing and what we are trying to build. That’s part of my message that I just told the guys. We do not get here this far, without how much they cared for each other, for the program and for UCLA. So that is what I think it shows. It’s a group of really gutty guys that have big hearts and are willing to compete and give it everything all the time.”
on Josh Kim winning his match as a freshman and his bright future
“Well, our future is obviously really exciting when you have two freshmen like Josh Kim and Tyler Loree and sophomore Baylor Larrabee. We are excited about what we have moving forward. I know that they’re going to be really hungry to get themselves back in this position.”
on sophomore Baylor Larrabee and where he’s made the most improvement
“His mentality, I mean, he’s grown so much, and there is so much maturity on the golf course and controlling his emotion. He’s not letting bad shots get in his way of having good rounds. He understands that he doesn’t need to have his ‘A’ game to shoot good scores. I could tell that when he got to the course this year, he was just a different person. Last year, his mind was a little bit spiraling, and he thought that the moment was a little too big for him and he was chasing pins. This year, he was so disciplined the entire time. He never got rattled. There were multiple times where I could see he was in a tough situation, a tough break, and he handled it like a champ. It was not shocking to me that he finished top 10 in this tournament.”
on having such a young team and if this success really raises the level of expectation for next season
“We have a consistent message that every day, every shot and every round is a new one. So yes, this is great for momentum and for our guys’ experience, but this is just part of their learning and building and growth process. But our team’s ultimate goal is to get back to this situation. But we will have to show up next year and re-earn everything, just like we have had to do this year. That will be the message to the guys over the summer, it’s, ‘Hey if you want to be back here [in this championship], it’s going to take a lot of hard work and it doesn’t matter next year, when we are in regionals that we were in this position, we’ll still have to get through regionals and go through what we did in stroke play.’ Yeah, it is a continual process but there is no doubt that this process will help them grow. This will accelerate their growth process for sure.”
on Monday’s final round of stroke play and that turning into a bit of a roller coaster experience
“I always believe that everything happens for a reason. While in that moment, I didn’t understand what that reason was, I think that by dropping those strokes and putting us into that playoff, it kind of put our guys on edge. It put our guys into a hyper-intense and competitive zone that kind of prepared them for match play. By putting them on edge, it got them into the mindset and the zone that they needed to be in to have success in the match-play portion. Those matches are so intense and they kind of got a little taste of it. And two, the unity. I mean, we were already a tight-knit team, but when you’ve got five guys playing and that celebration, it just felt like this big boost of energy. I think that’s what spurred us on to be able to take on a team like Texas and then Arizona.”
on what the development of these players and of this team means to him
“We won an event in the fall, we won the Big Ten Championships, we had two wins coming in here. Last year, we did make it through regionals and into nationals, so we’ve been building. But we did not make it past the stroke play portion. Yeah, it’s a nice progression. You make it through last year, and you get to nationals and then you don’t have the success that we wanted. And then this year, we got back and we made it a lot further. Again, I never take these moments for granted. Like I’ve said, we will have to go and do it again next year. We’ll have to re-earn everything, but it is certainly a nice upward trajectory, for sure.”
UCLA sophomore Baylor Larrabee
on his assessment of what he saw on the golf course this afternoon
“I’d say that I got some work to do. Jackson Koivun is an unbelievable player. He’s a great person. He showed me the level that it takes to get your PGA Tour card at 21 years old. So I’d say that I’ve got some work to do over the offseason, but I am excited for it. That’s how I would assess it.”
on how proud he’s been this week of UCLA’s postseason run
“I’m so proud of the guys, You can’t do what we did in match play without a team effort. Alex Papayoanou came up so big in those two matches [on Tuesday]. Everyone came out and won a match against two unbelievable teams in Texas, who I think is the second-ranked team in the country, and Arizona, which we lost to in the Copper Cup. Just so grateful for the guys – you can’t do this without them.”
on where he believes he took the greatest steps forward during his sophomore season
“Yeah, for sure, I’d say that it’s a lot about maturity and not getting as caught up in every shot. It’s also about maturity in my game. I have gotten a lot stronger, hitting the ball farther, hitting the ball better in general. To come out here, and there were a lot more pins that I felt I could attack. Instead of playing scared golf, I felt like I was able to play offense on a lot of spots. But the maturity in my game both with physical and the maturity mentally, just understanding how challenging this place is and what it takes to have a successful result.”
on having a team with some young players, himself as a sophomore and some freshmen coming back
“It makes me super excited, in the fact that this season was supposed to be a rebuilding year for us. We lost Pablo and Omar, two top-15 players in the world. And we were able to come out here, despite the struggles that we had in the fall and the early spring, and prove ourselves and prove who we all are as players and people. Yeah, it just makes me so excited. Those two [freshmen] are so unbelievably skilled and talented and just great teammates, in general. I can’t say enough positive things about them. It’s great and we have just got to all make the right steps in the offseason.”
on having made strides on his game and his success this week in stroke play
“Obviously, I am proud of it. I felt like it was a great example of how much better I have gotten. But I still feel like I’ve got work to do. I want to be the guy that’s winning it at the end of the week and not just getting sixth place. I mean, there is a lot of work to get there, and there are so many factors that can go on during the week. But I am proud of it, but I also feel like I’ve got some work to do.”