Insider: Maturing Castro prepares for stretch run
By John Dell, Nationwide Tour Insider
Better late than never.
That's the philosophy Roberto Castro has taken this summer on the Nationwide Tour and it's worked well so far.
In just four tournaments Castro, a former academic All-America at Georgia Tech, has made a little more than $81,000 and is ranked 53rd on the money list. He's had to make it onto the Tour the hard way by Monday qualifying and then hoping to post a top-10 to make it to the next week's tournament.
"I've had a good stretch here for about the last 10 or 11 months," said Castro, who is 25 and graduated from Georgia Tech in 2007 with an engineering degree. "I was able to win twice on the eGolf Tour and that was important, so I'm just glad it kind of carried over to the Nationwide Tour."
With the Nationwide Tour off this week it will give Castro a chance to catch his breath.
The Tour will begin the final stretch with 10 straight tournaments starting with next week's Knoxville News Sentinel Open at Fox Den Country Club in Tennessee.
When Castro turned pro in 2007 he didn't know what to expect. He hit the mini-tours hard and tried q-school twice but couldn't gain status on the Nationwide Tour or PGA TOUR. Last year things started to click for him but he says it wasn't about a magic swing change or any other discovery.
It was all about maturity.
Castro was one of Coach Bruce Heppler's most consistent players at Georgia Tech for four seasons, but he never won a college tournament. He left with the fourth-lowest stroke average (71.89) in school history and was near the top of his class in the difficult major of industrial engineering with a 3.82 grade point average.
"Roberto isn't afraid of hard work and that's obvious from his time here at Georgia Tech and what he accomplished in the classroom and on the course," said Heppler, the head coach for the Yellow Jackets for the last 15 seasons where he's guided them to seven ACC titles.
Trying to manage a tough major and play golf at a high level is never easy but Castro made it work while at Georgia Tech. He's most proud of getting his degree in four years, but he also was the Bryon Nelson Award winner as the country's top senior in 2007.
"College was great for me and finishing school to get that degree in four years was very nice," he said. "...I never realized how much easier golf can be as far as practice and all of that once you are out of school."
Castro said he talks with Heppler a lot and they have formed more of a friendship in the last couple of years. Some of the lessons he learned from Heppler at Georgia Tech still sneak up on him.
"It's funny but the other day it was getting late and I was practicing my putting and it was really bumpy on the greens," Castro said. "And I remember what Coach used to tell us 'Don't practice putting late in the day because there are too many foot prints on the greens.' And he's right so I stopped right there."
Heppler said that seeing Castro turn the corner on his pro career has been great. "All he needed was a chance and he's proven he's more than capable of competing with those guys on the Nationwide Tour," the coach said.
Castro nearly won earlier this month at the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open where he was tied for the lead after 54 holes. He closed with a 71 and despite being 19 under for the tournament lost by a shot to Jhonattan Vegas.
"You obviously have to go low out here and I didn't go low enough," Castro said.
The luxury for Castro is that he has a place to play for most of the rest of the season. He was going to go to European Tour qualifying tournament but has nixed that plan and will focus on trying to secure his PGA TOUR card by finishing in 'THE 25' the Nationwide Tour by the end of the season.
If he can't do that, he'll head to PGA TOUR q-school with a lot of confidence. But Castro said he hopes he can take the route of Colt Knost, who in 2008 made a late run to do enough to get his PGA TOUR card for 2009.
"There are a bunch of big purses and big tournaments left so there are opportunities out there," Castro said. "I have to take advantage."
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