Meeting News - January 25, 2010 - (Page 32)

Golf Meetings By Andrea Doyle Horse Country Course Succeeds In Shot At USGA Event Marion County, Fla., calls itself “The Horse Capital of the World,” but found a new calling in October 2009, when Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club in Ocala, Fla., hosted the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Golf Championship. “I see no reason why Marion County can’t be known for both horses and golf,” said Bernadette Castro, who owns Golden Hills. “The championship is a step toward giving Ocala a place in the national consciousness as a golf venue.” Castro’s father, Bernard Castro, gained fame for converting sofas into beds, selling more than 5 million of his Castro Convertibles. She became famous as the little girl who opened the sleeper sofa with the “feather-lift mechanism” in commercials during the early days of television. During the 1960s, Bernard bought land in an undeveloped area of Florida called Ocala, where the hills reminded him of his native Italy. In 1963, he built the Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club on his best 500 acres, and Marion County’s first private country club was born. Once deeded to its membership, Bernadette and her children bought it in 2002, partly for sentimental reasons and partly to revive it and restructure the golf course, while preserving property values in the community in which she owns hundreds of acres. Castro’s relationship with golf ’s chief bureaucrat, David Fay, who runs the United States Golf Association, gave the course the opportunity to hold the champi32 MeetingNews January 25, 2010 onship. Castro, a former U.S. Senate candidate in New York and commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation under then-Gov. George Pataki, helped secure the contract that in 2002 brought the U.S. Open, sponsored by the USGA since 1895, to Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., the tournament’s first time at a publicly owned and operated course. lic spectators—close to 4,000—at this U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Golf Championship than ever before. The event took two years to pull off. “I treated this like it was an Open,” said Castro. “The difference was the USGA was not carrying the ball with this one. They handed the club a $25,000 grant and a four-inch-thick manual and said, ‘Go for it.’ ” One of the first calls she made was to Rees Jones, an architect who takes old courses and rebuilds them for major championships. Jones was so impressed by the course that not only did he upgrade it, he became a financial partner with Castro and her four grown children. Getting the right group Golden Hills’ Bernadette Castro of organizers also was important. E.B. Gee Jr., “In ’02, we broke every record. who has worked on and played in We had more people in attenmany USGA championships, dance. The USGA sold more served as co-chair. tents, more advertising, more Fifteen subcommittees tended merchandise,” Castro said. “It was to virtually every detail of the just a huge success. I remember event—from transportation to the wave taking place by those medical needs to hospitality and who were sitting in the bleachers.” evacuation. The event, won by Tiger Woods, “Certainly the golf course is was such a success that the U.S. extremely important,” said Castro, Open returned in 2009. “but it’s also about hospitality.” “Then Fay comes to Ocala, A welcome party was held on horse country, discovers this Castro’s 180-acre homestead course and takes a chance again across from the country club, based on the fact that he knew I under a tent with seating for 350, would deliver on everything I with everything from sushi to promised like I did in 2002,” Casbarbecue, a band, a bar and a tro said. horse exhibition. She did. There were more pubThe economic impact the Alex Stafford championship had on Marion County was approximately $1 million. “This championship put Ocala on the national golf map as a golf destination,” Castro said. “The USGA has 900,000 members, and we’re getting that national recognition.” Castro had a $165,000 budget, including a $4,000 grant from the Ocala/Marion County Visitors & Convention Bureau, a $5,000 grant from the Florida State Golf Association, a $25,000 grant from the USGA and the rest from private donors, including a $10,000 gift from Golden Hills member Paul Hertenstein. Castro signed up about 350 volunteers, and local businesses provided everything from food to vehicles to tents. Marion County embraced the championship. “Our players were treated so graciously by the whole area,” said U.S. Women's MidAmateur Golf Championship director Maggie Giesenhagen. Now that Castro has proven herself by hosting a successful USGA championship, she hopes to host many more USGA events—and she has already called Fay to discuss future events. “When the USGA arrives at your club in force it is a thrill. There are only 13 championships a year, so it is quite an honor to host one,” said Castro. “The USGA represents what is good about the sport. They are the keepers of the game. There are so few things left in life that exude tradition and structure and the USGA is one of them.” ❍ www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - January 25, 2010

Meeting News - January 25, 2010
Contents
Newsmaker
Meetings Spotlight
Association Watch
Meeting People
Ad Index
Dateline: Las Vegas
Construction Cites
Dateline: Florida
South Regional
Golf Meetings

Meeting News - January 25, 2010