Hall of Fame
After attending a youth golf camp in Scottsdale Jeff Castle dreamed of someday returning to the picturesque Southwest as an Arizona State Sun Devil, playing for a storied program that has produced such legends as Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey and Billy Mayfair among many others. That dream almost came true.
“I fell in love with the area back then,” says Jeff, who admitted everything about the region was in stark contrast to his roots in Hampstead, New Hampshire where he grew up and attended Pinkerton Academy, before moving to Howard County with his family and eventually graduating from Mt. Hebron High School. “But I wasn’t recruited despite winning some regional tournaments and finishing runner up in the Maryland state high school tournament. I didn’t play in a lot of AJGA events where you can get noticed.”
Jeff was accepted to Arizona State. Upon arrival the golf coach held a walk-on tryout. Jeff beat out the 75 other hopefuls vying for that one spot.
“The coach then told me I wasn’t going to play in any tournaments because if he played anyone he hadn’t recruited he wasn’t doing his job,” Jeff recalls. “I practiced with the team, beating a lot of the guys but I never played. Eventually I made up my mind to transfer I just didn’t know where or really when at that point.”
Jeff had an immediate impact on the Tigers’ program, helping Towson to two (2004, 2005) of its four NCAA Tournaments. As an individual he soared to the top of the Tigers’ leaderboard. He is the men’s program record holder for 54 holes with a 200 (-13). That remains the record by six strokes. He still shares Towson’s single round, 18-hole record of 63 (-8). He is the school record holder in career starts (48) and career rounds (118). His career 73.16 average is second all-time at Towson (record is 73.00 by Towson Hall of Fame teammate Billy Wingerd). In his sophomore year he did not card a round over 74.
A team captain, he was the medalist in the Towson Invitational his senior year. He was twice (2005 and 2006) the Colonial Athletic Association’s Player of the Year. He was All-CAA all four years, first team twice, second team twice. In 2006 Jeff was Towson’s Male Athlete of the Year. In 2010 he was one of just two Tigers named to the CAA’s 25th Anniversary Men’s Golf Team. He was a three-time Golf Coaches Association of America All-Region selection, designating him as one of the Mid-Atlantic’s top 15 college players each of those years. As an undergraduate majoring in Sports Management, he won the Maryland State Golf Association Amateur title. From 2013-18 he served as a Tiger assistant golf coach.
