Men’s Golf Tees Off Spring Season at The Copper Cup

Sunday, January 14

Maricopa, AZ

All Day

UCLA

USC

Luciano Conlan

Photo by: Owen Main

Men’s Golf Tees Off Spring Season at The Copper Cup

January 12, 2024 | Men's Golf

Live Scoring

LOS ANGELES – The UCLA men's golf team begins the spring portion of its 2023-2024 schedule at The Copper Cup at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz. on Sunday, Jan. 14.

The Copper Cup is a two-day hybrid event featuring a mix between alternate shot matches and singles matches. The format of the tournament is detailed below. Score updates will be provided at the end of each day on X from the @UCLAMensGolf account.

The Field: Participating in the event are hosts No. 19 Arizona and No. 6 Arizona State and UCLA and USC.

The Bruins will face their crosstown rival on day one and the winner or loser of Arizona-Arizona State on day two, depending on day one's results. Pairings for the UCLA-USC match on Sunday are listed below.

UCLA Lineup: Nine golfers will be traveling for UCLA: Kyle An, Luciano Conlan, Pablo Ereño, Omar Morales, Alvaro Muller, Alex Papayoanou, Luke Powell, Matthew Yamin and Andy Yoon.

Weather Report: Sunny skies with temperature highs in the mid 60s.

The Copper Cup Format
Day One – January 14
Match 1: UCLA vs. USC
Three alternate shot matches and one singles match will be played in the first half of the day for a total of four points. Seven singles matches will be played in the second half of the day for a total of seven points. Whichever team secures the most points out of the possible 11 moves on to the winners' match on day two.

Match 2: Arizona vs. Arizona State
Four alternate shot matches will be played in the first half of the day for a total of four points. Eight singles matches will be played in the second half of the day for a total of eight points. Whichever team secures the most points out of the possible 11 moves on to the winners' match on day two.

Day Two – January 15
Match 3: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2
Four alternate shot matches will be played in the first half of the day for a total of four points. Eight singles matches will be played in the second half of the day for a total of eight points. Note that if USC is in the winners' match, there will only be seven singles matches played in the second half of the day. The winner of the 11 or 12 possible points will be declared The Copper Cup champion.

Match 4: Loser of Match 1 vs. Loser of Match 2
Four alternate shot matches will be played in the first half of the day for a total of four points. Eight singles matches will be played in the second half of the day for a total of eight points. Note that if USC is in the losers' match, there will only be seven singles matches played in the second half of the day.

Match 1: UCLA vs. USC Pairings (Jan. 14)
Morning
Alex Papayoanou vs. Rocky Chapman (singles)
Luke Powell & Pablo Ereño vs. Sam Lape & Antonio Safa (alternate shot)
Matthew Yamin & Omar Morales vs. Shane Ffrench & Krando Nishiba (alternate shot)
Kyle An & Luciano Conlan vs. Nicolas Dominguez & Gavin Aurilia (alternate shot)

Afternoon (all singles matches)
Alex Papayoanou vs. Rocky Champman
Luke Powell vs. Sam Lape
Pablo Ereño s. Antonio Safa
Omar Morales vs. Krando Nishiba
Alvaro Muller vs. Shane Ffrench
Luciano Conlan vs. Gavin Aurilia
Kyle An vs. Nicolas Dominguez

Fall 2023 Recap
Head coach Armen Kirakossian has the Bruins playing their best golf in years in just his second season leading UCLA. In Fall 2023, UCLA posted a pair of top-3 team finishes and shot a collective 39-under par across 15 rounds of play at four tournaments. The Bruins placed third in their second event of the season at the Hamptons Intercollegiate (-30) and runner-up at The Cal Poly Invitational (-16) to close 2023.

The fall was highlighted by back-to-back individual wins from freshman Luke Powell and junior Omar Morales. Powell, in just his second collegiate tournament, shot 17-under 199 (64-67-68) to secure his first title at the Hamptons Intercollegiate on Oct. 2-3. Powell's 54-hole score in relation to par was the second lowest in program history and his total score of 199 is tied for the third lowest 54-hole mark in program history. Powell opened round one of the Hamptons Intercollegiate with a bogey-free, 8-under 64, which is tied for the seventh lowest 18-hole score in program history and is tied with Patrick Cantlay, Jonathan Garrick and Steve Conway for the lowest 18-hole score by a UCLA freshman.

On Oct. 13-15, Morales claimed his second career medal in UCLA's next event at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate where he shot 11-under 205 (68-68-69).

Morales Named SwingU Golfer of the Month
For his victory in Georgia, runner-up finish at The Cal Poly Invitational (207, -9) and t-5th spot at The Hamptons Intercollegiate, Morales earned national acclaim being named SwingU Golfer of the Month for October. The Puebla, Mexico native shot under par in eight of nine rounds played in October for a stroke average of 69.2. Morales' worst score across that stretch was a 1-over 73 in the third round of the Hamptons Intercollegiate.

Morales' medal in Georgia also earned him Pac-12 Men's Golfer of the Week honors.

Freshman Phenom
Powell has had a dominant start to his UCLA career with three top-3 finishes in three of his first four tournaments. The Laguna Niguel, Calif. native shot six consecutive under par rounds to begin the season, including five in the 60s. He leads the Bruins with a 69.9 scoring average.

Powell prepped at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools where he the captured both the 2023 CIF State Championship and 2023 CIF Southern Section Individual Regional title.

Morales in the U.S. Open
Morales competed in his first major championship event this summer at the 123rd U.S. Open at hallowed Los Angeles Country Club (June 15-18). Morales, who hit the first tee shot of the tournament, sat atop the leader board at -3 after the turn in round one. Caddying for Morales was his collegiate head coach Kirakossian.

Morales earned his spot in the field by winning his qualifying round at one of the Bruins' home courses in Hillcrest Country Club with back-to-back 65s to finish -12.