After a heartbreaking end to the season last year when the Auburn Tigers were eliminated during the Quarterfinals, the team – with two new freshmen – surged for another National Championship title today.
The Auburn Tigers went up against the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins had handily won their way to the Finals, and it was projected to be a close match. Auburn Coach Clinard compliments UCLA’s season and tough competition today.
Josh Kim of UCLA was the standout player today and winner of the only match point for the Bruins. Auburn’s Josiah Gilbert held him off for most of the front nine, earning back holes as he went, but he started losing steam by the 12th hole. Kim’s consistent playing, with a birdie on the 14th hole, showed the writing on the wall for Gilbert. However, they never finished their match.
On the 15th hole, Auburn freshman Jake Albert had just won his match, 5&3, against UCLA’s Tyler Loree. With some birdies on Albert’s end and some unfortunate double bogeys on Loree’s, Albert won the first point for Auburn.
Soon after, Jackson Koivun clinched his match against UCLA’s Baylor Larrabee on the 15th hole, going 4&3. Larrabee was up in the beginning, but Koivun began winning on the 6th hole and the momentum never shifted again, aside from Larrabee’s birdie on Hole 12.
With two points solidified for Auburn, there were two potential places for the third. Cayden Pope was closing in on his opponent, Kyle An, after just finishing his 14th hole still 4UP. He could have won it on the 15th hole by tying it, but the team ran to the 18th green where there was a chance Auburn’s Logan Reilly could settle the match once and for all.
Reilly had been neck-in-neck with UCLA’s Alex Papayoanou all day – Reilly’s first match to reach all 18 holes this week. The pair spent 13 holes tied, and it all came down the 18th green. Papayoanou had bogeyed, which meant Reilly could two-putt to win the National Championship. He gave himself a bit of a putt on the way back for par, but he made it, to the excitement of his coaches, teammates, Aubie the Tiger (possibly the only mascot to ever attend a National Championship Finals golf match) and their family and friends.
They stormed the green to congratulate him. There was clearly a freshman bond between Reilly and Albert, who couldn’t stop smiling and knocking on each other. Soon, Gilbert ran over from the 15th hole to join the celebrations. Pope eventually joined as well.
This is Auburn’s second National Championship title ever – and they secured it again within three years. It was interesting to see 2024’s winners repeat itself at Omni La Costa this week, as the Stanford Women’s Golf Team also won in 2024 and 2026.
Auburn’s team is young – they may lose Jackson Koivun to the PGA Tour next season, but no one is graduating. They have a real chance of running it back again next year given they’re only adding more talent to the team. In fact, that’s exactly what we heard Coach Clinard telling Gilbert on the 18th green – he still had one more Natty to win before he graduates in 2027.
