As UCLA junior Omar Morales walked off the 18th green following the final round of the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship, he was disappointed. After starting the day at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama with a three-stroke lead, he’d lost by two to Santiago de la Fuente.
In past years, the loss would have tormented him mentally. It would have affected him for tournaments to come. However, Morales had grown.
“The experience propelled me to have a great season at UCLA and has shaped where I am now,” Morales said. “I don’t know if that would have happened if I didn’t finish second.”
Entering this year’s LAAC at Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Morales was in the top 15 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and top five in PGA Tour University. He has played in two U.S. Opens and three more PGA Tour events. Professional golf is on the horizon for the 21-year-old, who finished ninth in Buenos Aires on Saturday. However, struggles with golf’s hardest test, the mental game, nearly derailed his career before his first collegiate victory.
“I attribute golf in Mexico to a lot of my success now. I played so many different courses so I needed to have a lot of shots in the bag.”
Omar Morales
Born in Puebla, Mexico, Morales started playing golf when he was 6 years old. Very competitive by nature, Morales quickly rose through the ranks, becoming Mexico’s top-ranked junior during the 2018-2019 season.
“I attribute golf in Mexico to a lot of my success now,” Morales said. “I played so many different courses so I needed to have a lot of shots in the bag.”
In 2021, Morales started his freshman year at UCLA. It was not the season he had hoped for. He finished with no victories, one top-10 and a 73.1 scoring average.
“I was not playing well,” Morales said. “It was a pretty tough time.”
For the 2022-23 season, UCLA brought in a new head coach: Armen Kirakossian, previously the associate head coach at Arizona State.
To Kirakossian, Morales’ skill and coachability made him a coach’s dream. But Morales had to be better mentally. The UCLA coach says Morales treated himself poorly on the course, often berating himself when things didn’t go his way.
“It was pretty clear early on that Omar was an exceptional player,” Kirakossian said, “but Omar was beating Omar.”
After Morales missed qualifying for a tournament a couple of weeks into the season, he remembers his new coach approaching him.
“He pulled me aside and told me in a very serious manner that I’m good at golf,” Morales said. “I was shocked because I was not playing well at the time.”
The results started coming, and Morales won his first collegiate title at the El Macero Classic in April 2023.
“It was very rewarding to see all the work that I put in finally paid off at the right time,” Morales said.
Later that year, Morales got his first tastes of professional golf at the Mexico Open at Vidanta and the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. At the U.S. Open, with Kirakossian on the bag, Morales hit the opening shot of the tournament and found the fairway. While he missed the cut at both tournaments, Morales says he gained valuable experience.
“College golf is very different from professional golf,” Morales said. “I noticed how important it is to hit your driver really far and your irons really high. Otherwise you have to make almost every putt.”
Morales continued his upward trajectory during his junior year. He earned his second collegiate victory at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational. After his runner-up finish at the LAAC, he added seven top-10s. His junior year scoring average was 69.9, more than three strokes better than his freshman year with 13 more rounds played.
“If he can stay happy, play free and accept his mistakes, he’s going to be dominant.”
Armen Kirakossian
Morales attributes much of his improvement, both mentally and skill-wise, to Kirakossian.
“I have so much admiration for Armen and what he’s done for the program,” Morales said. “He’s a big reason for my recent success and I’m glad he’s my coach.”
Kirakossian has noticed Morales’ improvement, saying the young golfer is a different person on the course than when he first met him.
“If he can stay happy, play free and accept his mistakes, he’s going to be dominant,” Kirakossian said.
Last week, Morales sat fifth in PGA Tour University, a spot that would earn him fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour at the end of the college season in May. If he can finish first, he’ll earn his PGA Tour card.
Mentally, Morales chooses to remain in the present. The only thing he can control is himself.
“I’m in the present mindset of doing what I can now,” Morales said. “I still have to play tournaments and I don’t control what other players shoot. Whatever my ranking is at the end of the season, it is what it is.”
E-MAIL EVERETT
Top: Omar Morales says he gained valuable experience playing in the 2023 U.S. Open with his UCLA coach Armen Kirakossian on the bag.
Robert Beck, USGA
