Florida Christian’s Prieto, Palmer Trinity’s Bacardi are Miami-Dade’s Golfers of the Year
Nicholas Prieto and Remi Bacardi have both gotten a taste of what the state tournament is like.
They both will have another chance to get back there next year — or, in Bacardi’s case, maybe three more — and have their sights set on bigger accomplishments.
For now, they’re the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Golfers of the Year.
Prieto, a junior at Florida Christian, made it to the Class 1A championship for the first time and tied for fifth in his biggest competition of the year. Bacardi, a freshman at Palmer Trinity, made it to the 1A championship for the second straight season and came in 15th.
Prieto, who finished just three strokes out of first, got close enough to feel like he’ll have a real chance to make a run at a gold medal as a senior. Bacardi is young enough to feel like she has time to keep improving and make a run at a gold of her own.
“My goal is by the end of my high school career to at least finish second at state,” Bacardi said.
Bacardi, who’s the daughter of Bacardi chairman Facundo L. Bacardi, started playing at 5 on a whim. The family belongs to Riviera Golf Course in Coral Gables and none of the other sports Bacardi tried were sticking, so she decided to give golf a shot.
It turned out pretty well. She has been a varsity player since she was in sixth grade and she made it to a state championship before she even began high school.
“I just thought it was fun because it was just a really big game and it was longer, obviously, than any other sport,” Bacardi said. “I really loved all the aspects of it like the short game, the long game — I kind of liked how you had to use your mind for it.”
Prieto also started at 5, but he was playing tons of sports back then. Baseball took up his springs and summers, and so did tennis. Eventually, he started entering some golf tournaments and it became his sport of choice.
It took him until 2021 to finally make a state final, though, and it took more than 18 holes at the Region 4-1A championship to do it.
He was tied for third after 18 holes in West Palm Beach and a potential trip to the state championship came down to one more hole. He nailed his drive right down the middle of the fair way, hit his pitching wedge within four feet of the hole, then sunk the birdie putt to clinch his trip to Howey-in-the-Hills.
“It felt nice,” Prieto said. “I felt like I definitely missed out the past two years, so to finally get the chance to compete at state was nice.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 8:15 AM with the headline "Florida Christian’s Prieto, Palmer Trinity’s Bacardi are Miami-Dade’s Golfers of the Year."
