The Florida A&M golf team is a champion.
Again.
On Wednesday, May 6, FAMU claimed the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship at The Park at West Palm in West Palm Beach. The Rattlers posted a 54-hole team total of 844 — rounds of 280, 287, and 277 — to finish atop runner-up North Carolina A&T by 12 strokes.
“We were just trying to play our golf,” FAMU head coach Mike Rice told PGA.com’s Craig Dolch.
“Just keep doing what we do. We knew [North Carolina A&T] was going to come at us, but we were ready for it.”
Prairie View A&M finished third, Alabama State was fourth, Alabama A&M was fifth, and Maryland Eastern Shore capped off the six-team field.
Wednesday marked FAMU’s third consecutive championship season. It won the PGA WORKS Collegiate title in 2024 and then won the program’s first Southwestern Athletic Conference crown in 2025.
FAMU won its first PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship in 2000, when Rice was a golf star for the Rattlers.
FAMU participated in this year’s PGA WORKS Collegiate because it fell short of winning the SWAC title, finishing second to Arkansas-Pine Bluff. If the Rattlers had repeated as SWAC champions, they would have earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which starts on May 18.
“This tournament, especially to me, being one that I got a chance to play in and win my senior year, and then to come back a couple years ago and finally get it done after so many years of being close, it means a lot,” Rice said. “It’s our national championship. No question. The PGA of America is amazing. The way they run this event, they run it just like the PGA Championship.”
Sascha Robinson was a standout for the Rattlers during the three-day event.
Through a sore knee and battling back issues all season, the 6-foot-6 sophomore carded rounds of 67-69-65 for a 201 total, finishing at 12-under par. He was eight shots clear of Alabama State’s Quade Woods (209, -4) in the individual standings.
Robinson’s closing 65 was the low round of the tournament’s final day and a statement from one of the sport’s rising talents.
He was named the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship’s Medalist.
“We unfortunately didn’t win in our conference tournament, but as a team we really grinded over this last month in preparation for this,” Robinson said after hoisting the trophy.
“And it means a lot.”
Another key contributor was the key scoring by Phalatphon Viboonviriyasakul, who posted rounds of 68-74-71 for a 213 total (even par) and finished fourth individually.
Emilio Garcia and Skyler Woods each finished tied for ninth at +4 (217).
Gerald Thomas, III, is a multi-time national award-winning reporter for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at GDThomas@Tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU golf’s run continues with PGA WORKS Collegiate national title
Reporting by Gerald Thomas III, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
