New mind-set benefits Casey
Just how important for Paul Casey were those four pars on the closing holes of the Abu Dhabi Championship?
They steered the Englishman to the and in many respects, the most important.
It ended a two-year barren spell and as significantly it was achieved by ultimately avoiding throwing the tournament away.
Casey should have a Wales Open crown and a British Masters to his name but squandered leads on the back nine to miss out and there has been a danger of this becoming a damaging habit.
Anthony Wall, who finished fourth, had this to say: "I always feel Paul Casey will fritter shots. I think he is mega talented but he seems to always like to give people a chance going down the last nine.
"It's amazing I don't know why, whether he switches off because he's five or six shots ahead. It shouldn't happen, but it does seem to regularly. You'll always get a chance."
Well, Casey came up with the answers once he had come through a spell of three bogeys in four holes from the 11th, where he missed from shortish range.
"Not a bad putt I just misread it slightly," Casey said.
"The camera going off on 13 was very frustrating. It was a difficult putt and I knew the line and the camera went off right at the backswing and I flinched. It sounded like it was right next to me."
Casey then compounded the error with a poor drive at the next which cost him another shot, but this is where his maturity shone through - he wasn't looking at leaderboards and only knew where he stood in relation to playing partner Martin Kaymer.
He decided to stick to his aggressive game plan and was going for birdies rather than playing defensively on the closing holes, a policy which yielded those vital pars.
The decision not to look at the boards was a new departure, one that occurred to him when listening to a question and answer session with at this event's eve of tournament Gala Dinner.
"I didn't know that he had not looked at leaderboards at Augusta and when he said up on stage that he asked Neil Wallace, his caddie, on the last how many he was ahead by, Neil said three, which has got to be a great feeling," Casey said.
"Clearly he stuck to a game plan and it delivered. He didn't get phased by what any body else was doing. I thought I would take a leaf out of a major champion's book."
The similarities run deeper, because the South African was in danger of imploding when he double bogeyed the 16th at Augusta.
Casey's last title came here in Abu Dhabi two years ago and he failed to kick on from it. Now he is confident he can by adopting a new approach.
"Now I want to try to win every tournament I enter, rather than see them as preparation for majors," he said.
"So I will go to Qatar next week and try to win there and then I'll go to Dubai and try to win there."
In this respect, he is taking a leaf from another major champion's book because that is precisely the way goes about his business, though even when fit he plays considerably fewer events.
"At the Ryder Cup it's easy to get that intensity and at the majors. He has it every week and that's phenomenal, that's a huge asset," Casey said of Woods's approach.
One of the things that made 2008 remarkable was the absence of wins for so many of Britain's leading golfers.
Casey was among them and to have corrected that trend at the very first opportunity this year should provide a huge fillip, even if it was a rather more stressful victory than it might have been.
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Comment number 1.
At 18th Jan 2009, Tano wrote:If Paul Casey is to be successful in the both in 2009 and in the coming years I feel he needs to arrange his schedule as Padraig Harrington and Garcia, who play in Europe and in America, do. I realise he is attempting to climb the World Rankings, but if fatigue sets in he could find himself in a situation where he has little impact on the outcome of the Majors and the other big tournaments in the latter part of the season
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Comment number 2.
At 18th Jan 2009, jackhunt11 wrote:When players say that they do not look at leaderboards until the 72nd hole, I am assuming that their caddies are keeping an eye as you would feel a little stupid playing safe on the 17th for example when you need to birdie the last 2 for a tie.
Can anyone confirm this?
Thanks
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Comment number 3.
At 18th Jan 2009, flooch wrote:I find it almost unbelievable that, if in contention, you could avoid looking at leader boards on the back 9.
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Comment number 4.
At 19th Jan 2009, uberman21 wrote:Yeah, leaderboards are pretty damned big. You'd have to make a lot of effort to not look at them.
And being one of only two players in the final 20 to score 70 or over on Sunday wouldn't quite say to me you can get the champagne out his choking days are over.
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Comment number 5.
At 19th Jan 2009, calmjane wrote:These desert events are just one big birdie fest Id bet you Casey would swap 50 wins like that for one or two Opens Padraigs looking at sitting on his mantelpeice .
On the subject of the Open in relation to the double open winner i think that the R AND a should be lobbied for the Open to be played in Ireland as a gesture of respect and of their great heritage links
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Comment number 6.
At 20th Jan 2009, uberman21 wrote:Calm down Jane :-)
A gesture of 'respect'.......
i think one of the reasons the Open roster of courses is so restricted is because they need to meet certain criteria in order to be able to hold The Open. Royal Liverpool set about on a long journey to achieve that critieria to get back on the roster.
Which links courses in Ireland would be able to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people coming through the gates, the corporate villages, the media broadcast requirements and more?
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Comment number 7.
At 23rd Jan 2009, thechildrensreporter wrote:Funny how you start speaking about one thing and end up speaking about another. Casey has the tools, lenghth, good short game and good experience that should see him through the finnishing line. I think he just has to be more clinical in getting the job done and if that requires some form of course management strategy, whatever works for him, then that is fine.
I have played a lot of golf in Ireland, North and South, and when we talk about Ireland hosting The Open we can only talk about the North. Portrush? County Down? Struggle to think of any others that would compare with those currently on the rota. I think they would both struggle logistically. Turnberry only got after significant improvements in its road networks. Carnoustie (the hardest on the rota) after hotel accomidation and raod improvements. Maybe 40 years ago when The Open isn't the circus it is now. Nothing against the great Links of Ireland, but we are blessed by many many fantastic links courses that don't even get considered for non-golfing reasons. Western Gailles? Hmm, now that would be a very very inetresting Open Championship.
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Comment number 8.
At 25th Jan 2009, golfportugal wrote:I think people here need to take the tone down a notch or two here, why do you guys really care where the open is held, I mean as long as it happens right?
Just a game guys :P
Andy Biggs
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