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Castro, Jones Join Forces To Get Golden Hills In Shape

By Barbara Holsomback

Dynamic businesswoman Bernadette Castro and pre-eminent golf course architect Rees Jones, childhood friends, are the powerhouses behind the 2009 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at the Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club in Ocala, Fla.

In 2002, Castro repurchased Golden Hills, which her father originally established in 1963 with other local community leaders, and joined with her co-investor, the celebrated Jones, who worked his architectural magic on the course in 2004. That the United States Golf Association brought the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur to Golden Hills this year is a major accomplishment for the refurbished course and the Castro-Jones collaboration. 

Jones built his legendary reputation while redesigning seven U.S. Open courses, including the 2008 Torrey Pines venue, three Ryder Cup courses and one Walker Cup course.

In a recent interview, Jones pointed out that many courses today, such as the untouched Golden Hills handed to him by Castro, are too short because golfers' equipment is so much better than in the years when the courses first opened for play. Nevertheless, he said Golden Hills offered the elasticity to move the tees back to a distance that challenges the best players in the game today.

Family members have said Bernard Castro, Castro’s father, purchased the undeveloped area in Ocala where Golden Hills is located because the rolling hills reminded him of his native Italy. He had no way of knowing that the golf course he carved from the heart of his land more than 40 years ago would one day receive a redesign by an architectural master and attract a USGA national championship.

In a recent interview, Jones called the routing of the original Golden Hills design “phenomenal.”

“I like to say that the tailor cut the cloth well, but we had to do a lot of nips and tucks because the body has changed a bit,” he said.

Jones added that those who play the redesigned Golden Hills would find “a brand-new Rees Jones golf course with old-style straight-back greens, square tees, enough length and beautiful, sculptured bunkers.”

The architect promised, however, that the competitors will “shake a little bit” on the 18th hole at Golden Hills.

“That’s what the 18th should do,” Jones said. “It should be the crescendo. I think the reason that this will be regarded as a great golf course is that we have a great 18th hole.”

At the same time, Jones said the course would provide many memories throughout the years for members, something that will please Castro because she has been a lifetime advocate for making golf available to all who want to play.

“Here, it’s you against the golf course,” he said. “It’s a walk through nature. Moreover, it is an escape from the travails of life. I don’t think you can put a number or a statistic on the value of that."                                                                                                                  

Golden Hills wanders through the rolling hills of horse country in north-central Florida, home to more than 600 thoroughbred horse farms and six Kentucky Derby winners. The logo for the 2009 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur pays homage to the area’s other major sport by showing a thoroughbred horse at full gallop in front of golf clubs and a flagstick. Many of the course’s fairways are tree lined, while the majority of the greens are elevated and undulating.

The U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Golden Hills is not the first national championship Castro and Jones collaborated on. The two also led the team that planned the 2002 U.S. Open Championship at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y. It was the first time in history that the USGA conducted the U.S. Open at a truly municipally-owned course.

As one of New York Gov. George Pataki’s cabinet member for 12 years, Castro shocked some in the golf world by bringing the 2002 U.S. Open to a public course that anyone could afford to play. At the time, she was the Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for the state of New York. Then the USGA recruited Jones to do his magic on the Black Course.

The success of the 2002 U.S. Open was especially significant because the event took place nine months after the nation’s Sept. 11 tragedy. U.S. Open organizers carried the responsibility of providing the kind of security that would keep spectators, players and officials safe at a major golf event during heightened concerns about potential terrorist attacks.

At Mass the Sunday before the U.S. Open, Castro prayed for the safety for all involved in the championship and that the U.S. Open would be remembered not for a terrorist attack but as the greatest sporting event in history for New York. More than 50,000 golf fans attended, and Castro seemingly had her prayers answered as the U.S. Open was conducted without a hitch.

Castro’s vision for the history-making U.S. Open, as well Jones' work to the Black Course, provided the right circumstances for the first Castro-Jones reunion since childhood..

Although they had not seen each other for more than 30 years, their friendship was firmly rooted in Florida golf circles at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale. Castro’s father was a charter member of Coral Ridge. Jones' dad, the renowned Robert Trent Jones, designed the golf course there. At Coral Ridge, the two families became close friends at social gatherings and golf events.

During a colorful lifetime before the reunion with Jones, Castro became CEO of Castro Convertibles, her family’s sofa business in New Hyde Park, N.Y. She had appeared, as a child, in more than 40,000 TV commercials for the company in which she would pull out the convertible sofa as proof that even a child could do it.

Castro sold the company to Krause Furniture in 1993, after the death of her father. She became principal owner of Castro Realty Corporation, a family-run company that owns and manages real estate assets in retail, industrial and commercial properties in Connecticut, Florida, New York and Virginia. Her daughter, Terri Keogh, an attorney, runs the day-to-day operations of the real estate business and is now focusing on an eco-sensitive land development project, a golf cart ride from Golden Hills.

Castro discovered that Golden Hills was for sale only two months after the 2002 U.S. Open. Her father had turned over the club to members in 1963.  The club’s charter members included heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano and many of Ocala’s thoroughbred breeders.

Upon hearing Golden Hills was being sold, Castro spoke with her husband, Dr. Peter Guida, and Jones, to see if the purchase of the club was viable. Jones sent a team to Ocala to look at the club. Subsequently, Castro and Jones purchased Golden Hills and Jones went to work on the redesign of the course in 2004 with Castro’s charge that she wanted a “baby Bethpage Black.” Jones finished his work in 2005.

With those moves, Castro set the stage for yet another USGA championship carrying her own signature along with that of Jones. There's little doubting their influence on championship golf, individually and together, will end with Golden Hills and this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.