Caden Fiononi’s body still aches. He’s taking a few days off from touching his golf clubs, and for good reason.
The senior at UNLV had a wild journey last week. He made his PGA Tour debut at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, battling insane wind conditions in the second round resulting in a missed cut. About 12 hours later, he was about 1,760 miles away in Mississippi, running on less than two hours of sleep and set to tee it up for the Rebels in the Fallen Oak Collegiate.
While it would have been an easy choice for others to not scramble halfway across the country, Fioroni never wavered.
“Most selfish golfers, especially with rankings and PGA Tour (University), you would probably have sat it out,” Fioroni said. “But this is my last year, and I care a lot about this team. I care about the program, and I want them to succeed.”
Fioroni’s round finished close to 7 p.m. at TPC Summerlin on Friday evening, and he was exhausted. Before prepping for his PGA Tour debut, the UNLV men’s golf team returned from a college tournament in Dallas, so he was on the go non-stop.
There was a ton of prep time and grinding on the range, playing practice rounds with pros like Rickie Fowler picking up on tips and tricks. Add in Friday’s wind conditions, which he played his entire second round in, his tank was empty when is final putt dropped.
After talking with his father, however, Fioroni called UNLV coach Jean-Paul Hebert and asked whether he could play.
The next step was finding a flight. Southwest Airlines had one to New Orleans, Louisiana, but it was scheduled to leave at 7:50 PT. Thankfully, it was delayed an hour and a half, giving Fioroni time to make it to the airport.
He scurried home and threw together a bunch of clothes into a bag. “I didn’t really know what I threw in,” he said. And it was off to the airport.
He didn’t have a ticket when he got to the airport, but after going to the counter, he was able to get a seat on the flight.
A three-and-a-half hour flight later, Fioroni was wheels down in New Orleans, where Hebert was waiting at 3:30 a.m. CT to pick him up. Only there was a problem. His bag with his clothes in it didn’t come out on the baggage carousel.
He was still in the clothes he played his round in at TPC Summerlin, and that’s all he had.
“I waited another hour to talk to this lady that probably wanted to leave, too,” Fioroni said,” but she tried to help me out because the bag said it got there, and they didn’t know where it was.”
Eventually, the bag was secured, and Hebert and Fioroni got in the car and headed toward the hotel in Mississippi, where they arrived about 6 a.m. CT.
Less than two hours of sleep later, Fioroni was up again and ready to tee it up for the Rebels.
“I was really excited actually just be in my bed all day, the next day,” Fioroni said of his plans before flying to Mississippi. “So I just kind of tried pushing through it. And, you know, my body’s not, I mean, I’m trying to be in better shape, but I don’t know who can get used to that.”
Fioroni tied for 41st, shooting 7 over for the 54-hole tournament. He said the second round was one of the worst breaks he has ever gotten on a golf course (a plugged lie in a bunker that led to an opening double), “but I guess that’s just what golf does, right?”
“I thought it was the right thing, even though that, you know, I probably wasn’t giving myself the best chance to play my best in that college event, but I still helped the team,” Fioroni said, “which that was my kind of purpose.”
Fioroni teed off at 11:20 a.m. CT, a little more than 14 hours after his final putt dropped at a PGA Tour event in Las Vegas. A mad dash to the airport, flight and car ride later, he was teeing it up with his teammates.
It’s a week and stretch of golf he’ll never forget, but he knows testing himself will benefit him down the road, even if he’s not touching his clubs for a while.
“When I turn pro, not everything’s perfect,” Fioroni said. “And you’re gonna have to travel the day after a tournament and trying to play in something else. So that was my first time doing that.
“I probably slept two days straight after the adrenaline kicked out.”
