|
|
|
Castro's Quandries
A look inside
the trials and tribulations of the AJGA Boys Player Representative,
Roberto Castro
By Steve Ethun
|
Roberto
Castro doesn’t get mad at much. Just looking at him, this
is not hard to imagine. At this summer’s AJGA Rolex Tournament
of Champions banquet, Castro came with his curly red locks gleaming
and a bow tie just as vibrant to boot. And a huge smile -–
he’s always smiling. Happy-go-lucky – that’s
Roberto Castro.
But today is different.
“I’m an idiot,” he says as he drives through
suburban Atlanta on his way to play at Crooked Creek Golf Club
after school. “I forgot my clubs.”
Making a simple mistake like this must be frustrating for a
kid like Castro, a senior at Milton High School in Alpharetta.
It’s also a little frustrating to hear that forgetting
his sticks is his biggest problem.
Castro's
trademark move: the bowtie. Expect to see one
at the Polo Golf Junior All-America Banquet. |
|
Each day,
he leaves school around 1:30 p.m. and heads to the course to
play or practice. After all, high school golf season is right
around the corner. For even more motivation, a year from now
he will attend Georgia Tech to play collegiate golf -–
one of the premier college golf programs year-in and year-out.
So with a schedule that reads, “sleep-eat-school-golf,”
it’s nice to know he still can find some time to get mad
now and then.
“I was supposed to play with a buddy,” he says with
a cooler head. “I’ll be able to work something out.”
It must be nice to have friends in high places, but it wasn’t
always that way. Five years ago, Castro’s family moved
to Atlanta. His parents didn’t play and his brothers were
still too young to play much. He was left without a place to
practice, play and work on the game he felt he was getting pretty
good at. Then he went with a friend to Crooked Creek.
“Within a couple weeks, they were like, ‘Look, you
are pretty serious about the game. You can come out and play
whenever you want,’” he remembers. “It helped
out so much. If you get to a certain level, then you really
need to have a place to play. They’ve been so nice to let
me get my game together.”
It’s safe to say he used his time at Crooked Creek wisely.
Castro
eyeing a putt at the AJGA Chrysler Boys Invitational.
He placed fifth at this inaugural major back in
June. |
|
In 2000,
Castro chalked up his first American Junior Golf Association
win at the Henry-Griffitts Rome Junior Classic. In 2001, he
won again at the AJGA Greater Greensboro Chrysler Junior and
had three other top-10 finishes in major national events to
secure a spot as a third-team Polo Golf Junior All-American.
This year, as the AJGA boys national player representative,
he won the Georgia 5A State Golf Championships, placed in the
top-10 twice at AJGA majors and made it to the third round of
the U.S. Boys Junior Championship.
“Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot better at tournament
golf,” he says. “Just being able to play for the AJGA,
especially the majors, is huge. The courses you get to play
and the competition is incredible. From tournament to tournament
I could just see myself improving.”
So as he wraps up his junior days and sets his eyes towards
Georgia Tech, still improving from tournament to tournament,
he needs to remember to bring at least one thing – his
clubs.
“There are a lot of goals I could set for myself,”
he says about his upcoming playing days. “I can say I want
to have the best whatever at Georgia Tech, but that means if
I do that, I will have the best whatever in college with that
school’s history. So I’m looking forward to all the
challenges that are right around the corner.”
Crooked Creek must be proud. |
|
