Jensen Castle makes history and adds to UK’s recent athletic success with U.S. Amateur victory

Jensen Castle holds the trophy after winning the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. (USGA Photo)

No rest, no problem for Jensen Castle. The University of Kentucky junior said her Apple watch tracked that she slept less than two hours Saturday night after winning her semifinal match at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship before she had to tee off for Sunday’s 36-hole championship match.

And how is she going to celebrate beating Vivian Hou 2-and-1 in the title match to become the first UK golfer ever to win this event?

“I think we’re going to leave at 4 a.m. to head home and I have work Tuesday morning at like 5, so I should probably get some rest in between those days,” Castle, who works at two golf courses in Columbia, S.C., said.

Her 10-foot birdie putt on the 35th hole ended the match and made her the first No. 63 seed to win this event. She now has a spot on the USA Curtis Cup team that will play Great Britain and Ireland in Wales Aug. 26-28. She is also now exempt for the next 10 U.S. Women’s Amateurs and earned invitations to the 2021 Women’s British Open and the 2022 August National Women’s Amateur. She also will be able to play in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open.

“Still hasn’t registered. I mean, it feels like just another tournament, but then I step back and I’m like, this is a USGA event with so much history, and I just can’t imagine — and all the exemptions I didn’t even realize. It was just another tournament and I was just lucky I could play,” Castle, who had been limited this summer due to a rib injury, said.

Her victory continued an amazing streak for UK female athletes. The Kentucky volleyball team won the national championship in April and Madison Lilley was national player of the year. Former UK track athletes Sydney McLaughlin and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn both just won gold medals at the Olympics. Now Castle is UK’s first U.S. Amateur champion.

Castle beat current NCAA champion Rachel Heck in the semifinals, the top-ranked amateur. Sunday she beat Hou, the former No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

“I can’t even begin to describe how excited we are and how unbelievably proud we are of Jensen,” UK head coach Golda Borst said in a release from UK. “This is an amazing accomplishment, and she is so very deserving. She earned this win the whole way and what a way to do it. Jensen’s passion for the game was on full display and the whole country got to see the strong competitor that we get to work with every day. We are lucky to have Jensen and so, so happy for her. Wow, what a win.”

Borst called UK assistant coach Brian May, who made a surprise trip to New York for Sunday’s final, after Castle’s win.

“She actually flew back (to Sweden) last night at midnight. She was crying. She’s very emotional, so I knew she would be crying. She was ecstatic,” Castle said.

She never knew May was at the course Sunday until her caddie told her.

“He comes walking around the corner. It meant so much to me just having Coach here. Even the last day. Both have been out of town the past week so I understand,” Castle said.

Castle said hitting fairways and greens were all she thought about and that got her to where she got to hold “this heavy trophy” after her historic win.

She was not even sure she could play because of the rib injury before getting clear to resume playing just a few days before the Amateur started. She only booked a hotel room for three nights and then survived a 12-player playoff for the two final spots in match play after two days of stroke play. She had to borrow clothes from teammates who had lost and slept on an air mattress at a friend’s home the second half of the tourney.

Castle played seven straight days, including 36 holes on two days, and never flinched despite her lack of recent play and underdog status.

“I don’t know when the days of the Curtis Cup are. I have to get vaccinated and I have work Tuesday morning, so I’ll be working the next few weeks until I need to go to school and leave for Curtis Cup,” Castle said.