Less than four months ago, Ricky Castillo found himself in the parking lot at Sea Island Resort, transferring a courtesy-car full of belongings, including his fishing equipment, into his regular vehicle to make the hour-and-a-half trek back home to Jacksonville, Florida.
One item not in tow: Castillo’s PGA Tour card. The 25-year-old rookie had lost it earlier that afternoon, Max McGreevy’s birdie bomb on the RSM Classic’s final hole knocking Castillo, despite a closing 62, out of the top 100 in the final FedExCup standings.
No one was going to deny Castillo this time.
Castillo reeled in his first PGA Tour title on Sunday, playing his last 52 holes without a dropping a shot and closing in 5-under 67 to edge Chandler Blanchet by a shot at 17 under. Castillo is the 12th first-time winner in the event’s history, joining notables such as Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau and Nicolas Echavarria.
Korn Ferry Tour member Blades Brown, the 18-year-old who bypassed college to join the professional ranks, held the solo lead before a triple bogey at the par-4 13th hole. Brown ended up solo third, three back of Castillo, earning himself a spot in the Valspar Championship in a couple weeks.
Luke Clanton (T-5) and Gordon Sargent (T-8) were among the other young talents near the top of the final leaderboard.
Like those guys, Castillo (pronounced cuh-STILL-ee-oh) was a much-ballyhooed player coming out of school. He won in his pro debut on the KFT in 2023 and graduated to the big leagues the next year. But he managed just two top-10s in 28 starts as a rookie in 2025 while missing eight cuts by a single shot, three of those coming during a four-MC streak entering the RSM. His solo third at Sea Island pushed him to No. 102 in points, good enough to earn spots in four starts prior to this week’s opposite-field event at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande. He’d yet to miss a cut and was coming off a solo fifth at last week’s Cognizant Classic when he teed off on Thursday.
“I was happy,” Castillo said of what happened at RSM. “A lot of people said that I could have been upset or frustrated because McGreevy made that last putt to kick me out. The way I saw it was I had a chance, I had a 20-footer on the last hole to guarantee my spot, and I missed it. That’s kind of how I took the whole offseason is I had a chance, and I didn’t get it, but I did the best I could. And I was going to give myself enough chances out here this year.”
That type of mindset would have been unattainable for a teenage Castillo, still a decorated amateur but prone to mental blunders and mid-round frustrations that would cost him in big moments. But a meeting with his sports psych, Dr. Gio Valiante, during last year’s Valspar Championship proved pivotal.
As Valiante told Castillo, he already knew the answers – control what he could control, forget about the bad shots and the bogeys, and look to the future, not dwell on the past. Castillo just needed to grow up and do it. Getting in engaged in December, to fiancee, Bella, helped, too.
“We’ve been saying these things, but before, he was a 16-year-old, which means he just did what his dad told him to do,” said Ricky’s dad, Mark. “Now, he’s a 25-year-old adult, and he’s doing what he wants to do, and it’s not necessarily what I tell him to do. I’m just a dad now. I don’t tell him jack. It all comes from him, and that’s the key.”
Added Ricky: “My mental and emotional state [before that meeting], I was nowhere near where I am today, as calm and at peace with whatever happens.”
Castillo also credited Sunday’s breakthrough to his putting. He ranked No. 37 in strokes gained tee to green last season and No. 133 in putting, though he found something with his stroke around last summer’s Wyndham Championship while working with putting coach Chris Mason. Then he had Joe Toulon of Odyssey build him a new putter, designed to the exact specs of his gamer only with more loft and a little more weight; Castillo subs in this flatstick on grainy Bermuda, like the season opener in Hawaii and in Puerto Rico.
Castillo didn’t shoot worse than 68 all week in Rio Grande, and on Sunday, he chipped in for eagle at the par-5 sixth and followed with a birdie at the next, a par-3. Brown was 4 under through his first 11 holes while taking the one-shot lead, but Castillo retook control with back-to-back birdies, at Nos. 13-14. Blanchet, who won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour last season to easily earn his first PGA Tour card, rolled in a lengthy birdie at the last to shoot 67 following a 74 on Saturday and take the clubhouse lead at 16 under.
That left the stage to Castillo, who stuck his approach from the rough to 12 feet and easily two-putted for the victory.
“That’s the hardest thing about being on the PGA Tour is that it’s real easy to get ahead of yourself and start thinking of what wins and what things can get me and stuff like that,” said Castillo, who now has a two-year winner’s exemption. “… That was the biggest thing for me. I felt like I just really just didn’t even really worry about where anyone else was, I was just kind of understanding like I’m going to just play my game, and if that’s the best at the end, then it is.”
Mark Castillo and his wife, Kim, are both still teachers in Yorba Linda, California. Mark’s parents, Orlino and Lydia, worked on sugar-cane plantations in Kaumakani, Hawaii, after each immigrated from the Philippines after World War II. Ricky credits much of his golf success to Lydia, who was a constant presence at Ricky and his older brother Derek’s junior golf tournaments. When Mark and Kim needed help funding an expensive national schedule, Lydia would handle the bill. She’d also pick the boys – Kim usually shuttled around Ricky’s little sister, Kelli, a high-level gymnast – up from school most days, feed them rice bowls and drop them at the golf course to practice until dark.
When Ricky was 5 years old, Lydia brought a puka-shell necklace back from Hawaii. While the necklace has been replaced multiple times over the years, Ricky has not taken the puka shells off. It’s become his trademark – and after Lydia’s death in 2014, at age 71, a way to honor his grandmother, a piece of her always with him.
Mark has a routine when he’s at home during Ricky’s tournaments: He doesn’t watch the coverage or look at scoring, and he turns his phone on do not disturb, all until the round is over. But as Ricky neared victory on Sunday, Mark couldn’t help but notice the silent notifications piling up on his lock screen. Finally, Kim broke the silence, “He won!” Ricky called a few moments later after signing his card.
“So, I didn’t know he won until he won,” Mark said, still in disbelief.
Lydia, though, was there the whole way.
“I know my grandma’s looking down right now, just smiling,” Ricky said, his shells clinging tight to his neck along with a looser chain displaying a cross.
Ricky Castillo will head back to Jacksonville on Sunday night, as he’s set to compete at next week’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, his home course since turning pro.
This time, he’d be leaving nothing behind.