Entering his 34th year at the helm, head coach Bruce Brockbank looks to lead his team back to the NCAA Championship for the fourth time in the last five seasons after finishing 13th last May. BYU Director of Golf, Todd Miller, will be alongside Brockbank for his 21st season with the Cougars.

BYU took home three wins as a team during the 2024-25 season at the Big 12 Match Play, Arizona N.I.T., and the NCAA Reno Regional. The Cougars finished in the top five in nine of 13 events last season, leading to a No. 19 final ranking on the Clippd Scoreboard’s national rankings.

Key returners from last season’s most used lineup are seniors Simon Kwon and Tyson Shelley, with junior Peter Kim also returning.

Incoming freshman Kihei Akina is set to bolster the lineup, fresh off his Utah Open title this month. The Lone Peak graduate is currently ranked at No. 58 on the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) after becoming the youngest ever Utah Open winner in the tournament’s 99-year history.

Oklahoma State transfer Parker Bunn, sophomores Jackson Mauss and Kevin Wu and junior Angus Klintworth will look to be impact players during the 2025-26 season.

Akina was named to Golfweek’s 2025-26 Preseason All-America third team, the only freshman to be so honored.

Akina is one of eight Big 12 golfers to get a preseason All-American selection. Akina is also the only Cougar to be selected for the upcoming season.

The rising freshman out of Lone Peak is currently ranked 58th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) before his collegiate career has officially begun. Akina was selected four times as first team all-state in high school and has already garnered amateur event success by winning the 99th Utah Open in early August.

This year, Akina also competed in Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship and the U.S. Amateur. The 19-year-old was selected to the 2025 National Junior Team USA roster, a U.S. Elite Amateur Program, back in January.

Akina also competed in the Black Desert Championship last October, the first PGA Tour event in his young career.

Cougar women’s soccer earns Big 12 honors

No. 11 BYU women’s soccer junior Avery Frischknecht was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, while Paiton Collins earned Co-Goalkeeper of the Week, the league announced Wednesday.

No. 11 BYU opened a five-game home stand on Saturday, Aug. 23 against then-No. 4 UCLA. With a successful penalty kick by Ellie Walbruch in the 14th minute, the Cougars earned their second victory against a ranked opponent of the season.

Frischknecht, one of BYU’s captains, started and played the full game against UCLA on Saturday evening. As a key defender in the center back position, she got two shots off her head, forcing UCLA’s keeper to make diving saves. She was a major part of BYU’s defensive presence that held UCLA to just three shots on goal. This is her second career Big 12 honor, previously earning a defensive weekly honor last season.

Sophomore Collins started and played in her first home match on South Field as a Cougar. She had three crucial saves to tally her first-ever clean sheet as a goalkeeper for BYU. Collins joined Baylor’s Azul Alvarez as co-Goalkeepers of the Week. Collins is the second BYU goalkeeper to earn the league’s weekly award for keepers since joining the Conference in 2023.

The Cougars host Auburn Friday night at South Field, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. MT.