The Golf Club at Castle Hills, a semi-private golf club in Lewisville, Texas, has completed nearly $1 million in capital improvements.

The other day, Casual Friday was asked for an opinion on amateur sensation Ryan Moore.

For those not so up on their amateur golf, Moore is the 21-year-old from Puyallup, Wash. who has had the best amateur season this side of Bobby Jones' Grand Slam year of 1930. In short order, he's only won the NCAA Championships, Western Amateur, Sahalee Players Championship, U.S. Public Links and U.S. Amateur Championship.

The question, though, required some thought.

Casual Friday had the privilege of watching Moore play for the first time at the U.S. Amateur. Early in the week, Casual Friday's opinion of Moore was that he exuded an air of quiet arrogance. His responses to questions were both vanilla and cliche. You know, one shot, one day at a time.

But as the week wore on and he eliminated players with the cool calmness of an assassin, Moore still remained reserved, but far from arrogant. The young man was simply on a mission. Unbeknownst at the time, Moore began the summer intent on having one of the greatest summers by an amateur ever. He wanted to win everything he entered.

For a 21-year-old to set that as a goal and then achieve it is somewhat mind-numbing. Think about it? Enter five consecutive events and then go win them.

The closest thing Moore's feat compares to is Byron Nelson's 11-straight wins in 1945. The argument that Moore was playing against amateurs is irrelevant because the cream of the talent he beat will one day be professional.

Moore's ability to put what he has done behind him and focus on the task at hand has been likened to that of Tiger Woods. OK, the Tiger Woods of say 2000, not of '04. But Casual Friday hates likening a person to Woods or anyone else, for that matter.

Moore is Moore. He may be calm and quiet and may not exude a lot of flash and wit -- though he has his moments -- but the bottom line is that the kid can play some golf.

Casual Friday realized that while first appearances really do make an impression, in the end, looks can be deceiving.

Double Click
www.amateurgolf.com

A very good site for checking out the amateur scene. While it may not have the complete nitty-gritty, it's a good place to bone up on those players who may he hovering under the professional radar.