‘Nice blue’: Inside South Carolinian Jensen Castle’s final round at Augusta National
University of Kentucky golfer Jensen Castle dips off the back of the fourth green and glances to her left.
Castle’s dad, Darin, greets her near the ropes donning an entirely black ensemble that includes a Nike quarter-zip and ball cap complete with matching Puma socks and slide sandals.
“Nice blue,” Jensen, a Gray Collegiate Academy alum, chides.
“You’ve got the blue. You’re at Kentucky,” Darin responds through a laugh.
Jensen smirks as she trods toward the fifth tee box.
“I don’t know what my dad was thinking showing up in all black having a daughter going to Kentucky,” she later quips.
Walking the grounds at Augusta National is an experience that costs plenty of prayer and lifetimes of agonizing over ticket lotteries. Doing so with a dog in the fight is an event reserved for an even smaller populous.
Darin and Jensen’s mother, Elizabeth, followed their daughter in near lockstep throughout her 2-over, 74 in the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur on Saturday. So, too, did a slew of her Kentucky coaches and teammates.
Jensen’s 5-over, 54-hole effort netted her a T12 finish as she attempted to solve one of golf’s great puzzles. Sharing the afternoon with friends and family, though, was a win on its own.
“That was super special to have my family,” Jensen continued. “Me being from West Columbia, South Carolina, its only an hour and a half max (to Augusta), depending who is driving. It was super special to have all the people I’ve grown up with.”
The path to Augusta National
Darin crosses his arms and shifts his gaze toward Jensen as she walks up to her third shot resting in the front-middle of the fifth green. She’d tried to give her approach a smidge more distance. It fell short of her mark.
Jensen lines up a lengthy uphill putt. There looks to be a bit of bend. Darin takes a few anxious chomps of the gum tucked into the right side of his mouth. He glances at the leaderboard perched behind the green, then turns back toward Jensen.
Jensen sinks the long par putt with a smooth stroke. The crowd roars. Darin offers an emphatic clap that echoes in the gallery. A smile stretches across his face as Jensen heads to the next tee box.
“(Golf) is the only thing I’ve ever found in life I could go do and escape all my problems,” he told The State. “And I think that’s what (Jensen and her sister Jalen) learned from me in regards to golf.”
There’s an almost unspoken bond between player and parents on this chilly April morning. Elizabeth says Jensen is in her own world on the course, and it’s not for her to disturb her. Darin, too, explains he likes to give his daughter her space.
Jensen is in control more often than not inside the ropes. That, though, has been a process in itself.
Darin grew up an avid golf fan, but hadn’t ever truly devoted himself to the game. He vowed shortly after Jensen’s birth he’d always say yes if she ever asked to play with him. That first request came around 3 years old.
With a handful of pointers from his handy father-in-law, Darin built clubs for his golf-crazed toddler by cutting down the shafts and taping them himself. Jensen started playing competitively by the time she was just 7 years old.
Darin continues into a brief anecdote about how Jensen stopped playing tournaments for a handful of years as a pre-teen. She’d picked up some bad habits and grew increasingly frustrated on the course.
Jensen and her dad eventually stopped keeping score. The goal, Darin said, was to earn a smiley face on the scorecard for good behavior. The prize? A candy bar.
“Three Musketeers was her favorite,” he says with a grin.
Searching for a groove on the golf course
The control Jensen honed early in her round begins to waver toward the turn.
She entered the day three shots back. Birdies on Holes 2 and 6 pulled her within two shots of the lead. She added an acrobatic par save on at the seventh, sending a layup chip shot long, but with enough pace to spin it halfway back across the green and nearly into the hole.
Bogeys at eight and nine have her round teetering a touch. What was once a two-shot deficit has turned into four. Jensen needs a birdie, preferably a few, to thrust herself into contention.
You don’t get anything for a top 10 finish, Darin jokes. Why not go for broke?
Amen Corner — Augusta’s famed 11th, 12th and 13th holes — gives Jensen an opening.
Elizabeth has become increasingly focused as the round wears on. She’s kept her conversations to a minimum short of trading a few laughs with the Kentucky coaching staff and a couple friends she’s bumped into on the course.
Jensen’s tee shot flies just off the back edge of green at the par 3, 12th. Elizabeth again locks in, glaring intently through her sunglasses toward her daughter amid the masses below the grandstand.
“Come on Jensen,” she says to herself.
The birdie attempt misses. Elizabeth sighs.
Jensen again sets herself up for a momentum swing on the 13th, where the course bends back toward the clubhouse. Gripping a wood in the middle of the fairway, she sends a low-liner screaming across the bermudagrass. The shot looks destined for the water guarding the green. The ball stays dry, skating over the hazard, up a bank and spinning toward the hole. She’ll have a look for eagle.
But it’s one of those days at Augusta. The speed and break plays tricks on players.
Jensen three putts for par.
‘We’re proud of her’
Jensen continues to cool down the stretch.
She pars holes 15, 16 and 17, mitigating a wayward shot here or there. She’ll ocassionally take the scenic route. Her elite iron play can often bail her out. Augusta, though, is only so forgiving.
A sizeable gallery six or seven patrons deep gives Jenson and playing partner Shinsil Bang an ovation as they reach the 18th green.
Darin strides to the left side of the putting surface, slipping into a spot just below a television camera tower to catch a glimpse of Jensen’s final putts. Elizabeth heads to the back side, joining a conglomerate of blue-capped Kentucky golfers.
Jensen narrowly misses a lengthy, bending par attempt. She taps in for bogey. The crowd grants her one last chorus of cheers before she clears the green and heads to the clubhouse.
“We’re proud of her,” Elizabeth says to a member of her cohort.
Saturday was about competition, sure. It also allowed mother, father and daughter to share golf’s grandest stage. That memory will persist, right down to an all-black wardrobe choice.
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 8:07 PM with the headline "‘Nice blue’: Inside South Carolinian Jensen Castle’s final round at Augusta National."
