Junior golfer Riccardo Fantinelli downplays his humor, claiming he “tries, but rarely succeeds at being funny.”
Indeed, his game is no laughing matter to Ivy League competition.
With a Ping All-American selection, an Ivy League Player of the Year award, an Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, and two-time first-team All-Ivy selections, in his first two years as a Tiger, Fantinelli has been nothing short of extraordinary for Princeton golf.
“He’s already achieved so much, and I think he’s only scratching the surface of what he can fully achieve,” head golf coach Will Green told The Daily Princetonian.
On a Tiger squad of all Americans, Fantinelli stands out first for his heritage, hailing from Rome, Italy. Despite his European roots, Fantinelli plays a game that is distinctively red, white, and blue, according to his teammate senior Will Huang.
“Actually, his playing style is more American than anything else, which is quite funny, because a lot of the European kids hit the ball a bit lower — especially in the UK where he grew up playing for boarding school,” Huang remarked. “It’s always windy and cold out there, so they like to keep the ball pretty low, but he has a pretty high ball flight and works great out here in the US.”
Indeed, the humor that he downplays may be the most European thing about him.
“There’s nothing specifically Italian that he brings to the team,” Huang remarked. He added that his “European dark humor” is his most continental characteristic.
Fantinelli’s path to collegiate success in golf was untraditional. His childhood was marked by frequent movement.
“We moved to Egypt when I was very young, and when I was five, we went back to Italy and then headed over to Malta for a year,” Fantinelli told the ‘Prince.’ His family then “Went back to Italy, and I finally went to high school in London.”
He was first introduced to golf in Egypt where he decided to tag along to one of his dad’s golf lessons.
“I went with him to the center for fun and ended up swinging his clubs, which at the time were much bigger than mine,” Fantinelli recalled with a laugh.
Soon after, he discovered both a passion and aptitude for the game that his family was keen to foster with the right support.
“I’ve had the same coach since I was nine,” Fantinelli said. “He is so dedicated and dedicates so much time to improving the craft of my game,” he added.
Growing up in Italy — where soccer and water sports outshine golf — Fantinelli was an outsider. The nearest golf course to him was over an hour away. These early years of pursuing an uncommon and impractical sport in Italy shaped Fantinelli’s work ethic that has stayed with him at Princeton.
“My parents and I made a lot of sacrifices to play golf … But you know, if you want to get better, you have to find a way,” he said.
Fantinelli did not always envision golf as a part of his future.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to continue playing golf,” Fantinelli admitted. “It was pretty random and unplanned, and it wasn’t until I went to high school in London that I realized I wanted to play college golf.”
The turning point came when a roommate casually suggested he look into playing golf at U.S. colleges. The prospect of combining academics and athletics at an elite level — not something found in Europe, where academics and athletics are separate — quickly captured his imagination.
In his search for the right collegiate landing spot across the pond, Princeton instantly stood out.
“I reached out pretty early and then understood that the coach can only respond after a certain period,” Fantinelli said. “I was lucky that I started playing very well at the right time. And I had a lot of coaches wanting to recruit me, but Coach Green was the one who stood out to me,” he added.
Back at Princeton, Coach Green saw Fantinelli’s potential during his recruitment process.
“Riccardo was incredibly elite. He was an elite ball striker. He was an elite driver of the golf ball. He had tremendous distance, he had a great deal of discipline, and he had a great desire to keep getting better,” he remarked.
Fantinelli committed to the Tigers in the spring of 2022 and first set foot on campus that fall. The transition to American collegiate golf, however, wasn’t without its adjustments.
“The courses here are generally harder because they play firmer and faster,” Fantinelli noted.
The different landscape of American golf offered potential for Fantinelli, however.
“These courses allow me to be a little more aggressive … The days when I know things are going my way, I’m more aggressive.” Fantinelli explained.
Going into his first season, Fantinelli’s offseason work and trust in his coaches paid off sooner than even he expected. As a first-year, Fantinelli won Ivy League Rookie of the Year and first-team All-Ivy honors after finishing first at the Ivy League Championships.
“Were we surprised that he won? Not even a little bit. I was confident that the second he set foot on campus, he was going to be one of, if not the best, player in the Ivy League,” Green said, reflecting on Fantinelli’s success.
Fantinelli’s success would not be limited to helping lead the Tigers to their 31st Ivy League title, he then received a call to represent Italy at the World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi. Fantinelli played a large role for the Italian team — placing in the top 50 for the fifth-place Italians.
“Representing my country was an incredible honor,” Fantinelli reflected. “It motivates you to keep getting better and better,” he told the ‘Prince.’
Heading into his sophomore year, Fantinelli and the Princeton men’s golf team were eager to build on the foundation they had laid. Expectations were high for the Ivy League Championships, but the Yale Bulldogs took first place.
“We didn’t have our best stuff out there,” Fantinelli admitted. “It’s good because you don’t want to get comfortable.”
With the loss lingering in the back of his head, Fantinelli and his team were determined to return stronger this year.
“It really sucked in the moment, but it just makes you get back on your feet and work even harder for the next one,” Fantinelli said. “A couple of my teammates even set their phone backgrounds to the team standings as a reminder,” he revealed.
Motivated to bounce back from the previous season’s setbacks, Fantinelli approached the offseason with a focus on self-improvement.
“We lift three times a week in the mornings, and then there’s a little work which I do outside of that … trying to get at least another lift in,” Fantinelli noted, emphasizing the importance of physical and mental preparation.
The commitment paid off early this season, as Fantinelli placed first at the USF-Howard Intercollegiate tournament. He followed up this performance with two top ten finishes at the Rod Myers Invitational and the Hamptons Intercollegiate.
Huang highlighted Fantinelli’s leadership on the Tiger squad.
“He’s a quiet guy, but his actions speak louder than anything that he says,” Huang said. “You can tell every rep he puts into practice is very intentional, which is all needed since we’re trying to compete against large programs down south with great practice facilities and weather.”
As Fantinelli prepares for this upcoming spring season, his goals remain clear: help the Tigers break into the top 50 nationally and secure another shot at regionals.
“I think a big team goal even before winning the Ivies is to be able to have our ranking get us into regionals,” Fantinelli told the ‘Prince.’
As a leader of the team, Fantinelli inspires his teammates to put in the work to secure Tiger triumph in the postseason.
“Whether it’s like early mornings during the off season or even during the season, he can get there and get the good putts because the greens are rolling a little bit better earlier in the morning,” Huang said. “There’s nobody else that I really know that has practiced the amount that he has, and he’s always out there very dedicated.”
Matthew Yi is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Harrison Blank contributed reporting.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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