Caden Fioroni envisions himself on the PGA Tour in the near future, but it’s a pursuit he put on hold for a year to return to UNLV for a fifth season.
It’s a decision paying dividends for Fioroni and the Rebels.
Fioroni has led the way as UNLV has returned to the main stage of college golf this year. The Rebels are ranked 16th in the nation thanks to two wins this season and a second-place finish last week at the Southern Highlands Collegiate, a stacked field that featured nine of the nation’s top-25 schools. Only No. 2 Auburn was better than the Rebels.
And nobody was better than Fioroni, who won the individual title to jump to 18th in the national rankings, one of a number of personal accomplishments by the 22-year-old. He also finds himself on the Haskins Award spring watch list, one of 20 players in the country in the running for the top individual honor in college golf, and 17th in the PGA Tour University rankings, a number that will give him access to the Americas Tour or possibly the Korn Ferry Tour when he makes the jump to professional golf.
“That’s the worst I have planned, which is not a bad start on the Americas Tour, and then obviously work my way up to PGA Tour,” he said. “That’s the goal, and I just got to keep doing what I’m doing, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll accomplish it.”
Returning for fifth year
None of it would have happened had the San Diego native not decided a fifth year of college golf was the right move.
“I just thought one more year of learning more about myself as a person,” he said as a reason to return. “I just felt like one more year in college would help me for when I turned pro, just learning more stuff about myself and getting my degree.”
The latter was a huge motivator for Fioroni, a sociology major.
“That’s the most important thing that goes first before anything, especially being the first in my family to get a degree in the United States,” he said.
The focus on academics is a change for Fioroni, who began college at Pepperdine but didn’t make it through his freshman year after putting golf above education. With few options available at that point, interim coach AJ McInerney gave Fioroni an opportunity at UNLV, and he seized it.
“I took it as motivation to come here and work my butt off,” he said. “And now I’m going to be a three-time academic All-American, plus everything else in golf. So I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here, lots of good things.”
Coach Jean-Paul Herbert is certainly glad to have Fioroni back for his fifth season.
“Ever since he stepped foot on campus in the summer of 2021, Caden has been a star here at UNLV and a true success story in college golf,” Herbert said. “He’s got a passion for competitive golf and plenty of talent to go along with it. He has grown as a person and has become more complete as a player.”
His success has rubbed off on the team. The Rebels won the Trinity Forest Invitational outside Dallas in October, then turned up the heat during the spring season. They won the John Burns Invitational in Hawaii in February with sophomore Zach Little sharing medalist honors, led the Southwestern Invitational in Thousand Oaks, California, after two rounds before settling for sixth, and went head-to-head with the best teams in the country at Southern Highlands in finishing second.
Fioroni believes they are just getting started.
“I believe in this team, and we keep proving people wrong,” he said. “So why don’t we just keep proving people wrong and say that we are a national championship contending team?”
Seeking trip to NCAA finals
It’s been 26 years since the Rebels won a national title under coach Dwaine Knight, who led a dominant program with an NCAA record 31 consecutive NCAA regional appearances and 22 trips to the national finals. It’s a destination UNLV hasn’t been to since 2019.
Herbert will let Fioroni lead the charge to change that.
“Caden is a Rebel through and through,” Herbert said. “He has meant so much to the competitive spirit of our team, and I’m looking forward to the run we will all make together this spring.”
Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
