UCLA Assistant Coach Tapped to Lead Men’s Golf Program

Posted: May 28, 2020

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – One of top assistant coaches in the nation will take over the reins of the Santa Clara men's golf program.

Andrew Larkin, a finalist for the 2019 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award at UCLA and former collegiate head coach, has been tapped to lead the Broncos.

A professional player since 2012, Larkin helped direct the Bruins to three NCAA Regional appearances, including a championship berth in 2018, in his five seasons under coach Derek Freeman. UCLA was ranked No. 25 nationally by Golfstat.com when this past season was canceled.

Prior to his time at the Pac-12 Conference school, Larkin spent three seasons as the head men's and women's golf coach at Occidental College, his alma mater.

During his time at UCLA, the program produced eight individual medalists, a Ben Hogan Award final 25 selection, nine all-conference selections and four All-Pac 12 Freshman choices.

He has demonstrated success in recruiting, helping sign the Nos. 3 and 5-ranked players in the country in 2016, two top 20 players in 2017, three top 35 recruits in 2018, and the 14th-ranked American and No. 11-ranked amateur in the world in the class of 2020.

"I'm really excited to have the opportunity to join the Santa Clara family," Larkin said. "I want to thank (senior associate director of athletics) Peter (Fields) and (director of athletics) Renee (Baumgartner) for the chance to head to the Bay Area and work with student-athletes at such a respected university. I am certainly thankful for my time at UCLA, especially to all the student-athletes and Derek, as well as the staff I got to work with. But I'm certainly looking forward to a new chapter. I will look to take the Bronco golf team up to a new level and hopefully compete on a national stage this year."

Larkin, who replaces longtime and recently retired head coach Rob Miller, has posted 12 professional tournament wins. He has played events on a number of pro tours and mostly recently competed in both the 2017 and 2019 PGA Professional Championship.

He also served as caddie for former UCLA golfer Devon Bling at both the 2019 Master's and 2019 U.S. Open.

"We are thrilled to welcome Andrew and his wife, Maddy, to the Bronco Family," Baumgartner said. "Andrew has exceptional experience having been a standout student-athlete before excelling as both a head coach and now as an assistant at UCLA. His passion for student-athlete success and a vision for our men's golf program is evident and makes for an exciting future."

A native of Los Angles, Larkin was a four-time All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference selection and two-time (2011 and 2012) Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar while at Occidental.

During his time as head coach of the Tigers, he produced seven All-SCIAC selections and led the women's program from 150th nationally in 2013 to No. 35 the following year.

In addition, he designed and fundraised for a 2,500-square-foot on-campus practice area for the Division III program.