Fred Biondi played his first rounds of golf as a 4-year-old on his grandfather Nelson’s homemade 12-hole golf course in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Next summer, the University of Florida fifth-year senior could be competing on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Biondi opens the upcoming college season ranked No. 1 in the PGA Tour University’s Velocity Global Ranking. Should he remain inside the top five at season’s end, he will earn full KFT membership for the remainder of the 2023 season while Nos. 6-15 will have the option of playing PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latinoamerica.
“When you hit it as good as he does and then putt and chip pretty good, you’re going to do things like this,” said Florida head coach J.C. Deacon last February after Biondi won the Gator Invitational, his first college victory. Biondi went on to win twice and post two other runner-up finishes while earning first-team All-America honors.
The Gators boast the most players in the opening top 25, as Ricky Castillo (19), John DuBois (20) and Yuxin Lin (21) are also on there. North Carolina and Pepperdine each have three players in the ranking, including one transfer each. Pepperdine’s Dylan Menante transferred to the Tar Heels this summer while New Mexico’s Sam Choi is now at Pepperdine.
Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg, Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett, North Carolina’s Austin Greaser and Texas’ Travis Vick round out the top five. Bennett was ranked No. 1 last season at the time he pulled his name from the ranking to re-classify for the Class of 2023.
This season’s ranking, like last season, is determined by average WAGR points from only college, major, PGA Tour and select DP World Tour tournaments. The scoring period, which ends after the 2023 NCAA Championship, began Week 23, 2021.
Here is the top 25 of the first Velocity Global Ranking of the 2022-23 season:
- 1. Fred Biondi, Florida
- 2. Ludvig Aberg, Texas Tech
- 3. Sam Bennett, Texas A&M
- 4. Austin Greaser, North Carolina
- 5. Travis Vick, Texas
- 6. Reid Davenport, Vanderbilt
- 7. Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Illinois
- 8. Dylan Menante, North Carolina
- 9. Patrick Welch, Oklahoma
- 10. Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, Arkansas
- 11. William Mouw, Pepperdine
- 12. Rasmus Neergard-Petersen, Oklahoma State
- 13. Ross Steelman, Georgia Tech
- 14. Brian Stark, Oklahoma State
- 15. Palmer Jackson, Notre Dame
- 16. Barclay Brown, Stanford
- 17. Johnny Keefer, Baylor
- 18. Sam Choi, Pepperdine
- 19. Ricky Castillo, Florida
- 20. John DuBois, Florida
- 21. Yuxin Lin, Florida
- 22. Archie Davies, ETSU
- 23. Ben Carr, Georgia Southern
- 24. Ryan Burnett, North Carolina
- 25. Derek Hitchner, Pepperdine