UCLA
The Copper Cup
No. 21 Men's Golf Looks Forward to The Copper Cup
January 17, 2026 | Men's Golf
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA men's golf team will begin the spring portion of its 2025-26 schedule at The Copper Cup in Laguna Beach, Calif., hosted at El Nigel Country Club on Monday, Jan. 19, and Tuesday, Jan. 20.
The Copper Cup is a two-day hybrid event that features 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. Fans can also follow live scoring of The Copper Cup at this link.
The four-team field includes No. 7 Arizona State, No. 21 UCLA, No. 24 USC and No. 30 Arizona. The Bruins will face USC on day one (Monday), and the winner or losing team between Arizona and Arizona State on day two (Tuesday), depending upon the day one results.
"We are really excited about the Copper Cup, which is a very unique event," said UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian. "You don't often get to play head-to-head matches in college golf, other than something like this or the national championship when you advance to match play. But not only that, but having the chance to play eight players at a time is really cool. This is a unique format with alternate shot, followed by singles matches. This is one of our guys' favorite events. They are so fired up for this.
"We will only play in this once every other year, so they have been talking about this for a while. We're looking forward to the opportunity. It's a fun way for us to kick off our spring, too. Most of the guys will all see some action. They'll get competitive. To have this set up in a rivalry format with us taking on USC on the first day and Arizona and Arizona State playing each other, and then the winners will play each other after that. So in all, it makes for a fun and cool format. We're really excited to get things going."
Par and Yardage: El Niguel Country Club's course is a par 72, with distances of 7,017 yards on Monday and 6,913 yards on Tuesday.
UCLA's Lineup: All nine golfers will be traveling for UCLA – Kyle An, Luciano Conlan, Trevor Garus, Josh Kim, Logan Kim, Baylor Larrabee, Tyler Loree, Alex Papayoanou and Matthew Yamin.
Weather Report: Sunny skies, with temperatures expected in the low-to-mid 70s.
The Copper Cup Format
Day One – January 19
UCLA vs. USC
Match 1: 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 12 moves on to the winners' match on day two. One team needs to secure a minimum of 6.5 points to advance to the winners' match.
Arizona vs. Arizona State
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. Whichever team secures the most points out of the possible 12 moves on to the winners' match on day two. One team needs to secure a minimum of 6.5 points to advance to the winners' match.
Day Two – January 20
Match 3: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2
Just like on day one, there will be four alternate shot matches 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. The team that secures the most points out of the possible 12 will be crowned the Copper Cup champion. One team must secure at least 6.5 points to win the title.
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.
Projected Schedule
8:00 a.m. tee time, 1st and 10th tee start – four alternate shot matches
12:30 p.m., eight singles matches
The schedule will be the same on both Monday and Tuesday.
Fall 2025 Recap
Head coach Armen Kirakossian has had UCLA playing its best golf in years, now in his fourth season as the Bruins' head coach. In the fall of 2025, UCLA had two top-three finishes, including winning the title at the 2025 Fighting Irish Classic, hosted at the University of Notre Dame. Sophomore Baylor Larrabee finished in fourth place in the tournament, shooting 4-under 206 over three rounds.
The title at Notre Dame marked UCLA's fourth championship in one year. Last season, UCLA took the team championship at The Preserve Golf Club Collegiate in Carmel, Calif., in the fall, followed by spring season wins at The Goodwin (hosted at Stanford) and at the Big Ten Championships in Baltimore, Md.
UCLA's fall season also include a third-place finish in the 12-team field at Sahalee Players Championship, located in Sammamish, Wash. UCLA shot 9-over 873 at Sahalee Country Club. Kyle An finished the tournament as UCLA's top finisher (t-9th, at 1-over 217).
In all, UCLA competed in four events during the fall season – the Sahalee Players Championship in Washington, The Wohali (Utah), the Fighting Irish Classic (Indiana) and the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational.
Players Mentioned
