Nine holes remained in the final round.
Junior Luciano Conlan stepped up to the tee, battling a cold and rainy front that had clouded the skies during the final day of competition.
The Bruins needed a strong finale to cement their standing at the top of the leaderboard.
And Conlan posted one of his best showings of the tournament – going 2 under par in a performance that ultimately helped clinch UCLA men’s golf first-place finish in the Fighting Irish Classic at the Warren Golf Course in Indiana. The Bruins’ final-day performance gave them a three-stroke lead over second-place North Carolina.
“The back nine of the final round was really bad weather,” sophomore Baylor Larrabee said. “It was getting windy, it was super cold and Luc (Luciano Conlan) really buckled down and shot a big two under for the final nine, and we ended up winning the team by three.”
UCLA placed first in a field of 16, notching a 7-under 833 across three rounds Monday and Tuesday.
Coach Armen Kirakossian’s goal for his team going into the event was to have more fun and loosen up on the course after posting a 10th-place finish at the Wohali tournament on Sept. 15 and Sept. 16.
“You have so many ebbs and flows in a tournament where you get off to good starts and then you go through a stretch of holes where maybe the team’s not doing as well,” Kirakossian said. “That’s the moment when, if you kind of lose it or the energy drops or the guys stop having fun, your team score can kind of spiral.”
Kirakossian said the team never let those poor performances or bad weather impact its energy throughout the tournament. And the Bruins reaped the benefits – three UCLA athletes posted top-ten individual performances, helping the squad secure its first tournament win of the 2025-2026 campaign.
Larrabee placed fourth out of 84 golfers, earning below par or even in each of the three 18-hole rounds, good for the 2024-2025 Big Ten Freshman of the Year’s second team-leading performance this fall.
“I felt like last year, I got too outcome-focused in my own individual results,” Larrabee said. “And then this year – golf’s individual, you really can’t play defense – I’ve been trying to focus on everything I can do myself to the best of my ability.”
Senior Kyle An and freshman Tyler Loree both trailed closely behind their teammate, with each recording 3-under 207, finishing in a three-way tie for fifth alongside Georgia Southern’s Morgan Blythe. An – the team’s sole senior – secured his fourth career top-ten finish.
Conlan and sophomore Logan Kim rounded out UCLA’s lineup, coming in at 35th and 46th, respectively. Conlan earned one of just 15 eagles posted across the 54-hole course, going 2 strokes under par 5 on the fifth hole.
“It’s not unusual, but it’s rare sometimes when you have all guys contributing,” Kirakossian said. “It felt like that’s exactly what we had – every single guy contributed. Yeah, Logan and Luciano’s finishes weren’t as good as Tyler, Baylor and Kyle but even then, Logan had a great two first rounds, and Luciano had a great last stretch of holes to have a vital counting round for us in the bad weather.”
UCLA ended the opening day third in the team standings last year at the Fighting Irish Classic before falling to seventh place by the end of the third round.
[Related: UCLA men’s golf finishes 7th in Fighting Irish Classic]
The Bruins said they walked away from the result last year with some harbored disappointment. They took an opposite trajectory across the two-day event this year, climbing from second place at the end of the first two rounds Monday to the top of the leaderboard by the final hole.
“It felt like great redemption from when we left last year with such a sour taste in our mouth, to this year being able to travel home with the trophy,” Kirakossian said.
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