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PNJ sports reporter Ben Grieco hits the links with Pensacola Catholic boys golf team

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2 weeks ago

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PNJ sports reporter Ben Grieco hits the links with Pensacola Catholic boys golf team

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As PNJ photographer Gregg Pachkowski and I continue to (hopefully) plan more videos, I guarantee none of them will show me in a better light than this.

Once Pensacola Catholic boys golf head coach Jason Young confirmed that I’d be able to compete against some of his top golfers – including brothers Hudson Mitchell and Wilmer Mitchell – I had hope that I’d be able to hang in there, and not make a total fool of myself.

I also had the expectation that this would be the least painful video of the bunch (given that I had been hit by a softball against Jayden Heavener, slipped against the Pace flag football team, and took a couple lethal spikes to the body against Bella Satterwhite). That proved to be true.

This video was a little twofold as well (and if you couldn’t tell by the polo shirts and shorts, this was filmed when it was a tad warmer out during the fall), and I was able to see what it’s like for Hudson and Wilmer to not only golf together, doing so at a high level, but be part of a strong golf team in the area. In the couple months since we filmed the video, Hudson has won the 2024 PNJ Boys Golfer of the Year award, and was selected for the All-Area team.

Hudson noted that he and Wilmer, and the entire family for that matter, are extremely competitive with one another. It apparently works, as they led the Crusaders to a District 1-1A crown, a second-place finish at the Region 1-1A tournament and an appearance at the Class 1A state tournament in Howey-in-the-Hills. Hudson finished 29th at state to cap off his high school career.

“If I lose to (Wilmer) – which doesn’t happen often, but it has happened – I do not hear the end of it for a couple days,” Hudson said to me as we walked up the first fairway. “But it helps us compete better.”

“I love it. We have some fun. … It gets pretty heated sometimes,” Wilmer said on the third fairway. “At the end of the day, we’re both getting better.”

As for my own personal play, I was happy. Granted, had I played a full nine or 18 holes with the group, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to hang around. But through three holes, shooting three-over – as an average golfer – I was happy. I bogeyed the first hole at the Pensacola Country Club after my par putt lipped out of the hole, double bogeyed the second hole after a bad drive and a bad chip onto the green, and then finished off with a par on the third hole after Wilmer helped me read the putt.

Don’t expect me to compete this well in any other video we do. Because if you’re betting money on it, it’s a guaranteed loss.

And as always, enjoy the video.

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