UNLV senior Caden Fioroni notched the biggest win of his collegiate career, completing a wire-to-wire victory Tuesday in the prestigious Southern Highlands Collegiate.
The host Rebels finished second to No. 2 Auburn in the tournament, which featured nine top 25 programs in the 15-team field at Southern Highlands Golf Club.
Fioroni, who had built a five-shot lead after two rounds with consecutive 67s, fired a 1-over 73 on Tuesday to finish at 9 under, two strokes better than Auburn’s Carson Bacha, who had the low round of the tournament with a 64 on Tuesday. They were among just seven players in the 84-man field to finish under par on the difficult Southern Highlands layout.
Fioroni birdied his opening hole Tuesday, then posted two bogeys and 15 pars to close out the title.
The Rebels, who also got a 12th-place finish from sophomore Zach Little, finished at 1 over, 10 shots behind the champion Tigers. But UNLV finished well above some perennial golf powers, including No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 9 Virginia, No. 11 Florida and No. 12 Illinois.
Meanwhile, the UNLV women’s team struggled to an 11th-place finish at the Juli Inkster Invitational at the Meadows Club in Fairfax, California. The Rebels finished at 32 over, with seniors McKenzi Hall and Toa Yokoyama the top individuals at 4 over in a tie for 20th.
No. 1 Stanford won the title, followed by No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 USC. Each of those schools had an individual share medalist honors at 13 under.
Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. Reach him at [email protected].
