The file on Brazilian golf is about as light as you could imagine for a sports-crazed country of 200 million-plus residents.
Brazil has no professional golfers in the top 900 of the men’s or women’s world rankings, and you would have to search diligently to find any impactful players in the country’s past. The late Mario Gonzalez, known as the father of Brazilian golf, got into contention in the 1948 Open Championship at Muirfield and had some amateur success that included winning the 1947 Spanish Open. His son, Jaime, won a European Tour event and played on the PGA Tour for a few seasons in the early ’80s. Adilson da Silva hit the opening shot in golf’s Olympics return in 2016 in Rio and recently won on Europe’s senior Legends Tour. Others have had modest success, such as winning a PGA Tour Latinoamérica event, but there have been no real standout players whom golf fans have come to know.
Not like Argentina’s Angel Cabrera or Roberto De Vicenzo. Not like Chile’s Joaquin Niemann or Mito Pereira. And not like Colombia’s Camilo Villegas or Sebastian Muñoz.
However, that appears bound to change. On the heels of Brazil hosting the Olympics in 2016 – for those wondering, the controversial Olympic course reached 5,000 rounds per month before the pandemic and boasts a growing junior program – golf’s popularity in the country has increased.
Development in the South American nation is slow, but there is progress being made. A combined 14 men’s and women’s players were in the top 1,000 of last week’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, about double what it was five years ago.
One player in particular has golf fans excited about what he could mean for the country. Fred Biondi, a University of Florida senior from São Paulo, has enjoyed a breakout year in which he reached as high as No. 20 in the WAGR, a record for a Brazilian.
Biondi, No. 22 in the latest ranking, has proved himself against deep fields. Earlier this year, he finished runner-up in the Latin America Amateur Championship, won the Florida Gators Invitational, tied for a victory in the Calusa Cup and had two other runner-up finishes, in the Southern Highlands Collegiate and the NCAA Palm Beach Regional. It earned him first-team All-American honors.
His summer included qualifying for his first major championship with the U.S. Open, going 2-0-2 for the victorious international squad in the Palmer Cup and reaching the round of 32 in the U.S. Amateur. His terrific play had him at No. 1 in the PGA Tour University rankings to start the fall. He currently stands No. 5 in those rankings, which will reward Korn Ferry Tour status and other benefits upon the completion of the spring college season.
What could it mean for Brazil? Biondi hopes it could be a game-changer.
“Golf in Brazil is definitely growing,” Biondi told Global Golf Post. “I know a couple of people that started junior programs there, and they are trying their best to kind of implement golf into people's lives. I mean, it’s still very hard. Golf is a very expensive sport there. And some countries like that, it’s just difficult to have a very strong golf culture, but we've been trying. Being someone that kids look up to is very cool. Every time I go home, I try to make sure I talk to kids starting the game because I was one of them.”
Biondi was introduced to the game at age 4 when he played on a local 12-hole golf course built by his grandfather Nelson Biondi. The course no longer exists – there are only about 100 courses in the country, and affordable public golf can be nearly impossible to find – but Biondi had the opportunity to spend ages 8-14 at São Paulo Golf Club. He took lessons once per week but rarely played outside of that because of his involvement in other sports.
But at age 15, Biondi asked his parents if he could go to Florida for six months to focus on golf and improve his game. Six months turned into a year. Soon, he was staying there for good. He enrolled at Club Med Academies (now Altitude Academies) in Port St. Lucie. Biondi has worked with instructor Matt DeJohn for the past seven years, following him to Hammock Creek Golf Club in nearby Palm City.
“I just felt like in Brazil, golf wasn't big and it was hard because of it,” Biondi said. “But once I moved to the States, I knew what I wanted to do in the future. I had a more professional mindset that was a lot harder to have in Brazil.”
Gators coach J.C. Deacon has a good relationship with DeJohn, and there were ample opportunities for Deacon to see Biondi play throughout Florida during recruitment. For Deacon, a few important elements instantly stood out, and they went beyond Biondi’s obvious golf talent.
“I have two daughters, and he's the type of kid that you hope your daughter ends up dating one day,” Deacon said. “He's just very polite. He's humble. He works hard in school. He takes care of everything in his life, not just the golf and the fun stuff that he wants to do. He's responsible. I think he's a great friend of the guys on the team. He's a heck of a teammate.
“He's really, really close with his family. He's got a younger brother (Kyno), who's actually a superstar in the eSports world playing for a team out of Las Vegas. And honestly, his mom (Maricota) and dad (Feof) are about as easygoing of golf parents that I've maybe ever seen. “They just support Fred, they love Fred, but they don't really get involved in his game or ask much about it. They just kind of show up and cheer for him and support him and provide him with the opportunities he needs.”
Off the course, Biondi is even-keeled. On the course, he is a passionate competitor. Finding a balance between those two has taken some time to develop. Biondi redshirted his freshman year and then appeared in only three events as a redshirt freshman in 2019-20. Even in his sophomore year of 2020-21, Biondi saw the lineup only six times and posted a 72.33 stroke average.
But before last year, Biondi placed a new emphasis on getting his short game up to speed with his outstanding ball-striking. His stroke average dipped more than two shots, to 70.1, a huge leap in the college game. He has developed a close relationship with Deacon, assistant coach Dudley Hart and recent Presidents Cup player Billy Horschel, a UF alumnus who serves as a volunteer assistant on the team. Horschel has tried to impart wisdom with Biondi, including when the two played together in U.S. Open practice rounds this summer.
“It’s not a specific thing that changed; there's just a lot of little things that add up to a big one,” Biondi said. “If I could go back and talk to myself two years ago, I'll probably tell myself to focus on driving it straighter and to make sure you just play your own game instead of trying to be someone else.”
Biondi’s parents and brother are now mainly based in the U.S., but Biondi tries to return to Brazil twice per year to visit other family and friends. While he’s waiting for pro golf, Biondi has been able to receive some NIL money from Barstool Sports, which is giving him a cut of his own branded merchandise available on its site. He said there have been other opportunities available to help earn money in the short term, including from a company in Brazil.
He hopes the next stage of his journey is a successful senior season and a chance to play high-level professional golf, representing his home country along the way.
“It's pretty cool to play for a country that doesn't have a big golf background, and being the first doing things is always pretty cool,” Biondi said. “It means a lot, and it's an honor, for sure.”
If he can one day make a name for himself on the PGA Tour, he could reach where no Brazilian golfer ever has before.
Top: University of Florida's Fred Biondi has a chance to take Brazilian golf where it has never gone before.
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