Alexander: Yorba Linda’s Ricky Castillo has a rough Friday at US Open

The golf monster known as Winged Foot had some nasty surprises for everybody on the course in Friday’s second round of the U.S. Open. Ricky Castillo just got swept up in the maelstrom.

Castillo, the golf prodigy from Yorba Linda who won the NCAA’s Mickelson Award last spring as the nation’s top freshman for his pandemic-shortened season at Florida, qualified for the Open by virtue of being the No. 2 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. In a season in which coronavirus concerns prevented the normal collection of qualifying tournaments for a major that was delayed three months anyway, Castillo and six other amateurs got in on exemptions.

And, well, it was an experience. Castillo shot a 73 Thursday, not great but within the cut line, but Friday the temperatures in Mamaroneck, N.Y., dropped a bit and the wind kicked up a lot. Castillo shot a 79, was 12-over and missed the cut by six shots on a day when just about everybody on the course struggled some.

Castillo started his Friday round bogey, triple bogey (after hitting his tee shot out of bounds), bogey, par, bogey over the first five holes. He battled back with a couple of birdies at 7 and 9 but bogeyed 10 and 11 and pretty much was in jeopardy the rest of the way.

“It was a lot firmer out there today,” Castillo said after the round, fielding questions relayed through a public-relations representative. “The wind definitely made it a lot tougher. The course played I would say four, five strokes harder just because of the wind, how much the wind was affecting the course and how much firmer it got. Obviously by the scores, yeah, it was a lot different, a lot more tough, and it showed by the scores today.”

His evaluation of the course didn’t differ much from that of the professionals in the field, only six of whom were under par through 36 holes. Patrick Reed was 4-under, a shot ahead of Bryson DeChambeau. Spain’s Rafael Cabrera Bello, Harris English and Justin Thomas were at 2-under, and Jason Kokrak at 1-under.

But this will be an experience that likely will stay in Castillo’s memory for years, and should he be at the top of major leaderboards in years to come, he’ll be able to look back and chuckle, at least.

“This was really cool just because you got to play on a course like Winged Foot that was just so high level and so challenging,” he said. “I’m just going to take that away, work on my game, and hopefully I’ll be back here again and be able to play better.

“I did not play my best this week, but it was great to have the experience out here.”

Golf can be a game of failure – you can ask anyone who’s ever picked up a club – but it has for the most part been good to Castillo, who got into the game at the age of 5 to keep up with his dad, Mark, and his older brother, Derek. With the brothers three years apart, sibling rivalry drove both of them, but there was sibling cooperation, too.

Ricky’s coach at Florida, J.C. Deacon, was previously at UNLV, where he recruited Derek – and, legend has it, then 11-year-old Ricky tagged along on Derek’s recruiting visit. According to a story by G. Allan Taylor in The Athletic, Deacon asked their dad if the youngster played. Mark said not only did Ricky play but he was going to be better than his brother, to which Deacon replied, half-kiddingly, “Well, then, you’re gonna play for me one day.”

He was right. He just didn’t say where. Deacon became Florida’s coach in 2014, when Castillo was in eighth grade. And before Castillo even began his freshman year at Valencia, he’d verbally committed to the Gators.

Ricky was on the Register’s all-Orange County team as a sophomore, the No.1 junior golfer in the nation as a Valencia High junior, a member of the 2018 Junior Ryder Cup team, a two-time AJGA first team All-American, and a final 16 finisher at the 2019 U.S. Amateur Championship.

In his first year at Florida, he set a school record for single-season scoring average (70.08), won individual titles in Florida’s first two spring tournaments and was in the top 25 in all seven events in which he competed. He was, in addition to being the country’s top freshman, a Ping All-American and a finalist for the Ben Hogan Award as the nation’s best college golfer. He was third in the Western Amateur in late July, and pulled out of this year’s U.S. Amateur last month because of severe fatigue.

Winged Foot and a tournament filled with accomplished professionals was a useful experience for a young golfer, a reminder of how hard the game can be especially when the USGA toughens up the course. (And if you thought it was difficult Friday, just wait).

It should provide some added motivation to improve for Castillo, who will return to play for Florida – pandemic permitting.

“The three tournaments in the fall that we’re playing I’m playing, so I’m excited about that,” he said Friday. “It should be a few good months to go play a couple of college tournaments, which is good since we weren’t expecting to play in the first place.”

As with any accomplished college golfer, the question is when he’ll turn pro. If Castillo was paying attention when Collin Morikawa, the pride of La Cañada Flintridge, won the PGA Championship last month in San Francisco, he’ll remember that Morikawa played all four years at Cal.

Then again, Morikawa missed the cut Friday, too, by one shot.

jalexander@scng.com

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