Five things to know: Omar Morales

LOS ANGELES – UCLA is located just a mile from Los Angeles Country Club, and the local fans have had reason to cheer early Thursday. Bruins sophomore Omar Morales not only hit the opening tee shot in the U.S. Open but also was the tournament’s early leader.

Morales was alone atop the leaderboard after shooting 3-under 32 on the front nine.

Here’s five things to know about the local amateur off to a hot start at the U.S. Open:

1. ACING FINALS: Morales made it into the U.S. Open as the medalist from Final Qualifying at nearby Hillcrest Country Club. It was a course he was plenty familiar with, telling amateurgolf.com that he “played here every week since (his) freshman year.”

If that didn’t make him comfortable enough, the 20-year-old Morales had his brother on the bag as she shot 65-65 to finish 12 under, two strokes clear of the next qualifier. He beat out much more highly-ranked amateurs like Barclay Brown and Preston Summerhays, as well as PGA TOUR winner Charley Hoffman. Morales is one of 18 amateurs and 11 collegians in the field of 156.

2. SOMETHIN’ BRUIN: Morales had quite the bookends to his sophomore season at UCLA. He finished second-to-last in the first event of the season and won his final start. Despite finishing 89th out of 90 competitors at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate, he ended the year as the team’s highest-ranked player (finishing 241st in Golfweek’s final ranking).

He won the first title of his collegiate career at the El Macero Classic after shooting career-low 67s in the final two rounds. Three of his five sub-70 rounds this season came in that event, as he shot 69-67-67 to win. He posted a 70.7 scoring average in the final five events of the season.

“To watch him play in (the Maui Jim) and see that, it was kind of revealing of what he needed to work on,” UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian told Golf Channel. “And it wasn’t that he needed better skills or didn’t have the shots or didn’t have the game, he just needed to work on some composure, sticking to his game plan, being accepting of poor shots and mistakes.”

3. ANOTHER OPEN: Morales acquitted himself well at the PGA TOUR’s Mexico Open at Vidanta in late April. Playing on a sponsor exemption, he shot 74-67 to miss the cut by one. It was his first PGA TOUR start, and whether because of nerves or inexperience or both, he put himself in catch-up mode early with a triple-bogey 6 at the 17th hole in the first round.

The problems began when he hit his tee shot in the water, and he compounded them when, from the drop zone, he hit his third into a greenside bunker. It was his eighth hole of the day and he eventually fell to 6 over par for the round before making birdie on three of his final five holes.

The rally continued with seven second-round birdies to shoot a 4-under 67 and finish just a shot shy of making the cut.

“That first day, I looked too many times (at the leaderboard),” Morales told Golf Channel. “I was 1 over through seven holes, nine back of the lead, and I was getting mad at myself and didn’t realize I was playing all the hard holes. Just focusing on what I can do is most important.”

4. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: It should not be a surprise that Morales is performing well at The Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course. For a venue that is foreign to almost every golfer in the field, Morales is a notable exception. Morales told Golf Channel that he’s played LACC “nearly two dozen times in the past two years.” As a member of the UCLA golf team, the Bruins get access to the course about two Mondays a month. Among his accolades at the storied course: a team-best 66 for Morales.

“It’s just a great championship golf course. It’s very demanding in every single aspect of the game, it’s just a cool course, overall,” Morales told The Orange County Register. “I’m just super-pumped, super-excited; I need to calm myself down a little bit.”

5. COACH AND CADDIE: Morales has UCLA head coach Armen Kirakossian on the bag this week, adding to the local knowledge available to Morales. Kirakossian was named the team’s head coach last June and just finished his first season with the Bruins. Before UCLA, Kirakossian spent five seasons at Arizona State, two as associate head coach and three as an assistant. Following the 2018-19 season, Kirakossian was named a Strickland Award Winner, as the top assistant coach in the country. Prior to coaching at Arizona State, Kirakossian was an assistant coach for Pepperdine University from 2015-17. Current PGA TOUR players Sahith Theegala and Kevin Yu played under Kirakossian at Pepperdine and Arizona State, respectively.