Roberto Castro River Hills

Castro Cruises to Four Shot Victory in River Hills Open

Lake Wylie, SC- 2007 Spring Creek Classic Champion Roberto Castro picked up his second career Tarheel Tour victory on Friday with a 4-under-par 68 to defeat Scotland’s Joel Hendry by four strokes in the inaugural River Hills Open at River Hills Country Club.

The former two-time Palmer Cup participant for the United States (a match play competition involving college golfers from the USA vs. Great Britain and Ireland) took a two shot lead into Friday’s final round, but his front nine 33 coupled with the other leader’s struggles gave Castro a three shot lead at the turn as he stood at 12-under-par. Castro bogeyed the par five-12th and coupled with charging Hank Kim’s birdie on 14, the lead shrunk to just one shot. From that point, Kim would fall back to 8-under with a pair of closing bogeys, but Castro’s game plan was executed perfectly. The former Georgia Tech All-American repeatedly hit the narrow fairways with long irons, and safely found the small greens in regulation that resulted in pars on 13, 14, and 15. Castro went to the 16th tee holding a two-stroke lead over Scotland’s Joel Hendry, who had already finished at 9-under after posting his third consecutive 69. The Alpharetta, GA native slammed the door on his first victory of the season by birdieing the uphill 429-yard par-four 16th and the 215-yard par-three 17th, which ranked as the two toughest holes on the back nine for the week. With the tournament all-but sealed up, he safely executed a two-putt par on the 18th for a four-shot win. Castro attributed his win to executing his own game plan. “This course is fairly tough and it’s not a course where someone is going to shoot nine or ten under-par in one round to go flying past the field. However, a lot of players were capable of shooting five or six-under which meant I needed to stick to my game plan and continue to play solid golf,” said Castro. That is precisely what Castro did in his 5-birdie; 1-bogey round of 68. With this win, Castro earned $17,000 and jumped into 14th on the money list with $27,090 in just four events.

For Joel Hendry, it was another runner-up finish, his third of the season on the Tarheel Tour as well as his third consecutive top-four finish. Hendry’s stellar golf began at the Pete Dye Classic where he held at least a share of the lead until the final hole and ultimately finished second alone to Ryan Blaum. Last week, he closed with a 9-under-par 63 at the Southern Open to grab a share of fourth place. This week at River Hills, the three-time runner-up was unable to produce a super low round, and had to settle for another second place finish after posting three 69’s. With his runner-up finish, the native of Scotland earned $9,000 and moved into seventh on the current money list with $36,501 in earnings.

Former N.C. State All-Americans David Sanchez and Hank Kim were joined by former Augusta State standout Emmett Turner and Johns Island, SC resident Scott Usher in a share of third place at 8-under-par. Sanchez, who missed the last six events due to injury, set the early target with a tournament low 7-under-par 65. First round leader Hank Kim battled back from a disappointing 1-over-par 73 in the second round with a 4-under-par 68 to also finish at 8-under and record his second third place finish of the season. Scott Usher and Emmett Turner shot 69 and 70 respectively in the final round to each record their best finish of the season on the Tarheel Tour.

The Tarheel Tour would like to thank Director of Golf Brian Talley, Golf Course Superintendent Gene Daniel and their staffs for making the inaugural River Hills Open a big success. The tour would also like to thank all of the members who volunteered this week, especially Mr and Mrs. Rehkopf who generously donated all of the bottled water for the event.

The Charlotte, NC based Tarheel Tour closes out the July schedule next week with another inaugural event at the Lake Hickory Open at Catawba Springs in Hickory, NC, before taking three weeks off in August.

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