GAINESVILLE — While his father, Mark, and big brother, Derek, waited for him in the golf cart, young Ricky Castillo suddenly would take off sprinting down the fairway after his ball — too eager to wait for anyone before taking another whack at it.
Castillo has been on the fast track ever since those formative years in Southern California. The 19-year-old’s boundless enthusiasm and appetite for the game have carried him to the upper reaches of amateur golf and now to the first tee of the 2020 U.S. Open.
“That’s all I did … I just wanted to go to the golf course,” Castillo, a Florida Gators sophomore, recalls now.