As you recall, we pulled into Baltusrol at 7:25 am, the pageantry of a typical PGA Tour event was evident and yet everything (except for the quality of play and the conduct of the players) was different.
- We parked no more than 200 yards from the main gate…FREE!
- We headed to the main gate and there was…no one. Not even security!
- Admission was FREE!
- We walked through Baltusrol’s Pro Shop (the actual Pro Shop, not a tent). There were fifteen people in the building, including the staff.
- We headed to the first tee for Paul Romano’s (USGA Rules Official) assignment on the Lower Course. We counted fifteen individuals (3-players, 3-caddies, 1-USGA Rules Official, 4-parents, 2-college coaches and 2-spectators from Lancaster, PA) participating in the 7:57 tee time. Moments later we were sashaying down the middle of the first fairway (sans spectator ropes), ten to twenty respectable yards away from the actual competitors. We were so close we could have replaced their divots!
- Full access to players, caddies, the Rules Official, parents and coaches. We took advantage of them all with the exception of the players and the caddies.
As circumstance would have it, we followed Ricky Castillo (Yorba Linda, CA) who was four under par after his first day on Baltusrol’s Upper Course (one shot off of the lead), and his playing partners Connor Glennon (Republic of Ireland) and Kevin Johnson (Bethesda, MD), on Baltusrol’s Lower Course.
We bird-dogged the group for the first four holes, meeting and conversing with Ricky’s dad, Mark. I had countless questions for Mark however I managed to temper myself to only asking about fifty! Mark was very engaged in his son’s activities, friendly, kind and incredibly modest about his son’s accomplishments. I asked if Ricky gets nervous in these kinds of events. Mark reluctantly shared a story about Ricky competing the US Kids Golf Word Championship (twelve and under) in Pinehurst, NC, where Ricky, at the age of 6, was in the final age specific group of the day, being followed by over one-thousand spectators. Mark suggested that Ricky has grown up in these types of circumstances and is extremely comfortable. In addition, Ricky’s brother Derek was on his bag. Derek, an accomplished player in his own right, is entering his junior year and playing golf for Cal State Fullerton.
The Ricky Castillo Resume (age 17, entering his senior year of high school):
- Two-time Rolex Junior All-American
- Played on two Wyndham Cup West teams
- 2015: Youngest player to compete in the US Amateur at Olympia Field Country Club in Illinois
- 2017: Advanced to the round of 16 in the US Junior Amateur
- 2017: Advanced to the round of 32 in the US Amateur
- 2018: Competed in the US Open Sectional qualifier in Daly City, CA
- 2018: Winner of Los Angeles City Junior
- 2018: Winner of the Ping Heather Farr Classic
- Committed to the University of Florida
We then headed to the Upper Course, traversing across the 18th fairway of the Lower Course where we found the “Jack Nicklaus 1-Iron” marker, memorializing his spectacular 238 yard uphill, into the wind shot to close out the 1967 US Open Championship in record breaking fashion. On our journey, we marveled at the landscape and the playing conditions of this immense, impeccable property. Along the way we met and conversed with the University of Arkansas’s Head Men’s Golf Coach, Brad McMakin. Brad was following a recruit from Mexico, suggesting the recruit had not missed a fairway in well over twenty holes of golf. Coach McMakin was polite, interesting and accommodating. He played on a NCAA Championship team at Oklahoma University, played four years of professional golf and has had an accomplished twenty-three year coaching career at Lamar University (10 years) and the University of Arkansas (13 years).
We toiled on the Upper Course for a few hours, reconnecting with the Paul Romano/Ricky Castillo group, on the final stretch of their Lower Course journey. Ricky birdied the monstrous par five 17th hole and had a twenty-five foot eagle putt on the par five 18th hole, ending his day birdie/birdie, a two under par (68) effort. Ricky finished the two day Stroke Play event in second place, six under par. Ricky eventually lost in the match play competition in the Round of 16. A fabulous player with a wonderful, committed family and a future as bright as the sun!
This was a truly amazing experience; intimate golf with polite, respectful, mature teenagers on golf’s greatest stages. Next year, Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio and then off to Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
In the months to come, a piece on the fraternal USGA Junior Amateur Rules Officials, their unmistakable commitment to Junior Golf and their obsession with food!
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The back nine can only get better!
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