UCLA
The Tindall
Ereño Captures First Collegiate Medal in Washington
September 23, 2024 | Men's Golf
SAMMAMISH, Wash. – UCLA senior Pablo Ereño won the first medal of his collegiate career, securing co-champion honors at The Tindall with a score of 11-under 202 at Aldarra Golf Club on Tuesday afternoon. The Bruins finished fifth in the 14-team collegiate invitational at 11-under 841.
Ereño entered the third and final round on Tuesday morning tied for eighth place, having shot 6-under 136 through 36 holes on Monday. The senior from Madrid, Spain, finished Tuesday's round 5-under 66, compiling his career-best low 54-hole tournament score (11-under, 202). Ereño tied atop the individual leaderboard with Utah's Davis Johnson, who shot 2-under 69 on Tuesday in Washington.
Ereño registered five birdies on Tuesday, logging back-to-back birdies on his first two holes (starting on hole one). He shot 3-under 35 through the front nine and birdied the par-5 11th and 12th holes to move into the top two spots. Ereño shot even par on each of the final six holes.
"First off, I am so pumped for Pablo," said third-year UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian. "This is an amazing tournament win for him. This guy has been knocking on the door. He had a great summer. He's been working super hard, and it was only a matter of time. I felt that. I knew that this guy wouldn't go through his entire college career without a win – he was going to get one, and I just had a good feeling about it all week. It's a golf course he had played in the Pac-12 in 2022 and he liked it. It suits his game, and he was so locked in and focused. I couldn't be more thrilled for Pablo. It's so well-deserved. He's just an amazing player, but he's also a great person and a great student. He's the definition of UCLA athletics, just through and through."
Utah won the tournament title with a score of 33-under 819, 14 strokes ahead of second-place Pepperdine (19-under 833). South Carolina finished in third place (17-under 835), followed by California (13-under 839) and UCLA (11-under 841).
Ereño captured the Bruins' first medal since Oct. 2023, when Morales earned co-champion honors with a score of 11-under at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational. As a freshman last season, Powell won his first collegiate medal at the Hamptons Intercollegiate in early October.
Senior Omar Morales concluded this week's The Tindall having shot 6-under 207 (T-11th). Morales shot 1-under 70 on Tuesday, with four birdies, one bogey and one double bogey.
Sophomore Alex Papayoanou shot 3-over 74 on Tuesday, concluding the tournament with a score of 3-over 216 (T-40th). Rounding out UCLA's competitors included sophomore Luke Powell (4-over 217, T-51) and junior Kyle An (9-over 222, T-58th). Bruins' freshman Baylor Larrabee participated as an individual at The Tindall, posting a score of 5-over 218 (T-49th).
"As for our team's performance, we walk away obviously not happy with finishing fifth," Coach Kirakossian said. "Golf is tough, and you don't get your way sometimes, and sometimes the scores just don't line up. But we have a lot of good takeaways. We have a lot of stuff that we can work on, ways in which we can improve, and there are things we've learned about each player. And I think each player has learned some things about themselves. There are some silver linings on the fifth-place finish, and I do think that this can propel us to some greater success down the road, even though it kind of hurts in the short term. We have high expectations. We feel like we've got a really good squad this year. It's not really the way that we wanted to open the season, but also, fifth is still a solid showing. We definitely have expectations for better results coming up in the future and I think that we will get those."
UCLA will return to action at The Fighting Irish Classic, hosted by the University of Notre Dame, on Oct. 6-7 at Warren Golf Course (South Bend, Ind.).
UCLA's Leaderboard
T-1. Ereño (-11, 66-70-66)
T-11. Morales (-7, 66-71-70)
T-40. Papayoanou (+3, 72-70-74)
T-46. Powell (+4, 74-72-71)
T-58. An (+9, 77-72-73)
It's the ??????????-???????????? ?????????? for Pablo Ereño??
— UCLA Men's Golf (@uclamensgolf) September 24, 2024
Bruins' senior Pablo Ereño has earned ????-???????????????? ???????????? at The Tindall (-11, 202), shooting a 5-under 66 in Tuesday's final round.#GoBruins ??? pic.twitter.com/NNRac7qIBW
Day One Recap
Ereño and Morales Lead UCLA on Day One at The Tindall
Sept. 23, 2024
SAMMAMISH, Wash. – The UCLA men's golf team shot 7-under 561 through the first two rounds of The Tindall at Aldarra Golf Club in the Bruins' first tournament of the fall season on Monday.
UCLA will enter day two at Aldarra Golf Club tied for sixth place with Ohio State, 13 strokes behind first-place Ohio State (-20, 548). Pepperdine and California are tied for second (-15, 553), followed by fourth-place Arizona (-12, 556) and fifth-place South Carolina (-8, 560) entering Tuesday's action.
Leading the Bruins on the first day of action was senior Pablo Ereño, who shot 5-under 66 in the first round and finished the day 6-under 136 (T-8th). Ereño opened the day with six birdies and just one bogey through the first 18 holes.
Senior Omar Morales also shot 5-under 66 in the first round on Monday and concluded day one at 5-under 137 (T-10th). Morales finished the opening round with five birdies and no bogeys.
Sophomore Alex Papayoanou shot 1-over 72 in the first round and closed the afternoon by shooting 1-under 70 through the final 18 holes. Papayoanou had five birdies, two bogeys and one double bogey in the second round. He finished the day at even-par 142 and is tied for 29th.
Sophomore Luke Powell opened the morning shooting 3-over 74 in the first round before ending the second round at 1-over 72. Junior Kyle An concluded the first day of action at The Tindall shooting 7-over 149.
Players Mentioned
