In their penultimate tournament of the fall season, the Bruins were unable to break into the top half of the field.

UCLA men’s golf shot 7-over 871 and finished 11th out of 14 teams at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational in Alpharetta, Georgia, from Friday to Sunday.

Despite it only being the team’s fourth tournament of the year, the invitational marks the third time the Bruins finished in the bottom half this season. The only exception to this pattern was the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational, where they tied for eighth out of 16 competitors – meaning even at their best, the Bruins have been stuck around the middle of the pack.

Three of the five UCLA starters this weekend played in the invitational last season. One was senior Alex Papayoanou, who had the best individual finish of any Bruin at 1-under 215 across three rounds. This consistent performance allowed Papayoanou to tie for 15th among the 78 individual competitors.

“(I was) definitely more comfortable than the first time I was there – just some of the holes were tough and scary – and it was nice to have that added level of comfort of being there before,” Papayoanou said.

After Papayoanou, sophomore Tyler Loree and junior Baylor Larrabee, who also participated in the event last season, tied for 27th place. The other two Bruins, sophomore Josh Kim and freshman Baron Nguyen, finished tied for 46th and in 77th, respectively.

On the first day of the tournament, the Bruins came out to a hot start. Loree finished 4-under 68 and Papayoanou shot 3-under 69 Friday, placing Loree tied for third and Papayoanou tied for 10th after the opening round. These performances allowed UCLA to finish 6-under 282 after the first day of play – a sharp contrast to the 7-over it finished the invitational with.

After warm weather Friday, the cold weather Saturday may have impacted the team’s performance, coach Armen Kirakossian said

“We were definitely a lot more comfortable when it was 85 degrees,” Kirakossian said. “That cold front blew in, and you never want to use weather as an excuse, but … with the young team, they’re just not maybe as prepared for stuff like that as they need to be in order to get through those moments.”

This timeline aligns with the Bruins’ drop in performance. On Saturday, the blue and gold dropped from sixth to 11th overall. After shooting multiple strokes under the previous day, Papayoanou shot 1-over and Loree shot 2-over.

“Anytime the weather changes, it always affects the golf course, so it’s almost like we’re playing a totally new, different golf course,” Loree said. “We did a decent job at adjusting, but we could definitely do better.”

Ultimately, UCLA was unable to regain its momentum Sunday and completed the tournament at 11th, the same place it occupied after Saturday’s rounds.

However, the weather may not have been the only challenge for the team.

The majority of the starting Bruins are young and relatively new to collegiate golf. While Loree has seen the Georgia course before, the Kula, Hawaii, local is still an underclassman. Two of the other UCLA starters, Kim and Nguyen, are also underclassmen. Both of them made their Georgia Collegiate Invitational debuts this past weekend.

“It’s natural to have these kind of ebbs and flows a little bit more than if you have a group of really experienced upperclassmen,” Kirakossian said.

Despite these early setbacks in the team’s season, the Bruins still have a lot of golf to play before the conclusion of the 2026-27 campaign. The team is heading into its last tournament of the fall and will continue the second half of the season in January.

As for the road immediately ahead, the Bruins will remain in Georgia for the East Lake Cup from Oct. 26-28 in Atlanta.

“We’re hungry going into the last tournament,” Papayoanou said. “It hasn’t been the fall we’ve been hoping for, but we know we can do it.”