Castillos making mark on match-play trophy

By Bill Kwon

When Ron Castillo Jr. defeated Kevin Hayashi last week at the Leilehua Golf Course to become only the seventh player to win both of the Aloha Section's two majors — the match-play and stroke-play championships — in the same year, his father, Ron Sr., caddied for him.

Ron Castillo Jr., left, accepts congratulations from father and caddy Ron Castillo Sr. after winning the Aloha Section Match Play Championship. Aloha Section PGA

One of the seven players to win both major titles in the same year?

Ron Castillo Sr.

And, caddying for him when he won both events in 1976?

Ron Castillo Jr., then a 14-year-old junior golfer.

"The Castillo's name is now on that trophy seven times. Not bad, huh?" said the proud patriarch of Hawai'i's first family of golf. He won the match-play title four times. That's not counting the stroke-play event, which he has won three times.

It was Ron Castillo Jr.'s second match-play crown. The head professional at the Hapuna Golf Course on the Big Island also won it in 1997. Brother Michael, Po'ipu Bay Resort's head pro, kept the trophy in the family by winning the following year.

With his 2-and-1 victory over Hayashi in the 36-hole Spalding Match Play Championship, Castillo completed a personal sweep after having won the AT&T Stroke Play Championship last month at Mauna Kea.

"It's very nice. I know he must be proud of me," said Castillo about his "two-fer" that matched his father's accomplishment.

He shot lights-out golf, playing the first 15 holes in 6-under-par, to go 4-up on Hayashi before the defending champion from Pearl Country Club finally pulled even at the 22nd hole by driving the par-4 seventh hole and sinking an eagle putt. Hayashi squared the match again at the 30th hole, but Castillo went ahead to stay when par was good enough to win the 32nd hole.

"The afternoon was a little different. The pace was much slower," said Castillo, who opened with a 5-under 67 to take a two-stroke lead after the morning round.

"It was easy to lose focus," Castillo added. "I told myself if you think of anything, think of hitting a great shot as opposed to thinking of holding up a trophy."

He did and won.

Who's counting?

Well, maybe the Castillos, including Wailea head pro Rick, Lori Planos and Po'ipu Bay Resort assistant pro Joey, especially when it comes to keeping track of the family's career aces.

When Ron Sr. aced the 161-yard second hole at Leilehua in his match last Tuesday against Kia'aina, it tied him with his daughter for the family lead. Both have eight career aces, Lori getting her latest one two years ago when she played with her father on his 64th birthday at Bay View.

Michael is next best with four holes in one, while Ron and Rick have three apiece. Joey chips in with one, giving the Castillo family a total of 27 aces. Too bad, their mom, Dorothy, doesn't golf.

Bragging rights can get pretty intense.

Rick Castillo, whose first hole in one came in 1974 at Ala Wai's eighth hole, vividly recalls his second ace.

"My second one (came) in a blood-bath shootout with my three brothers at the Hawai'i Kai par-3 course. Joey was so (upset) that he tried to take it away from me by claiming that I played in front of the tee markers."

Castillo Jr.'s third hole in one came at the Oahu Country Club's seventh hole in the 1998 Aloha Section PGA four-ball match play tournament.

"Two groups later, Rodney Acia made a hole in one on the same hole. Fortunately, tournament sponsor Larry Harris of Spalding hosted a cocktail reception that afternoon," Castillo Jr. said. "We didn't have to buy champagne for all the pros. We know how much golf pros can drink!"

A majority of the aces for the young Castillos came at the Hawai'i Kai executive course when their father was the head professional at the championship course.

"We count all of them, even on the short course, because we played it when we were growing up," said Lori, who got her first hole in one when she was 13. Playing with an equally young Lenore Muraoka, Lori recalls saying, "Whoa," when her shot hit the top of the flagstick at the fifth hole on one bounce and dropped into the hole.

Lori also remembers her first competitive hole in one, that coming in the 1980 Makalena State Open at Ala Wai's 15th hole when she came home for the Thanksgiving holiday during her junior year at Stanford.

For competitive aces, no one in the family can beat dear old dad.

The senior Castillo posted two of his career aces in one tournament — the 1982 Mid-Pacific Open holing out No. 11 in the opening round and No. 6 on the third day. It is still the first and only occurrence in a local tournament that anyone can recall.

Castillo came close to getting a pair of aces at Leilehua's second hole on the same day. He aced it in the afternoon round, using a 5-iron.

"That might have been the only hole I won against Ron (Kiaaina)," Castillo said.

In his morning match against retired OCC pro Bill Schwallie, Castillo hit a 6-iron to within four feet for a birdie, giving him 3-under for the day at that hole.

Lori, a two-time national women's public links champion and now the local Ping representative, thinks her father will wind up as the family's hole in one champion.

"He plays five times a week. We hardly get to golf anymore."

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.