PGA Tour: The Two Faces of Paul Casey: Notes from the Ballwasher

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1).Paul Casey is a one-man charm offensive when it comes to dealing with the US Media - always good for an articulate, well-spoken interview, and often with at least a smidgeon of an edge to what he has to say. "Cocky and abrasive" were two of the least unflattering descriptions of him in a Telegraph article a few years ago.
In turn, the Press hacks here have seemingly forgiven him the "I properly hate the Americans" nonsense he came up with ten years ago.

2).Now it's almost as if he "properly hates" the European Tour, their rules and Ryder Cup eligibility requirements.
He's engaged in a war of words with Keith Pelley who, by most accounts, has bent over backwards in an effort to accommodate Paul - he's determined to play the Bridgestone, for instance, rather than accept the French Open olive branch, so "That number hasn't changed. It's still five (regular European Tour events mandated). The number is still the same, Keith Pelley. The number is still five."

3).As Geoff Shackleford writes, " . . . . some speculated that Casey was exacting revenge for being snubbed by Colin Montgomerie as a Captain's pick for the 2010 matches" when he was still in the owgr's Top Ten. An out of form Harrington was chosen in front of Casey and that Monty decision reportedly left Casey in tears.
But: "No, that never even crossed my mind," said St.Paul, who could have added "'course it didn't", but did say, "The Ryder Cup was never even discussed."

4).Justin Rose tried to rationalise it this way, and this from a man who was similarly "snubbed" by Montgomerie: "When you put so much into the Ryder Cup and feel like you should be on the Team and you get let down like that, maybe that's harbouring some of his decision-making to this day."

5).In lieu of the Ryder Cup, Casey's national ambition this year is to earn a spot on the British Olympic Team. He still has a lot of work to do, but this is a realistic goal.

6).But it's also quite likely that, apart from his understandable family objectives, he's also looking to cement his "status" on the PGA Tour, which is currently year-to-year. Whether due to injury, divorce, disaffection or bad form, he's missed out on some high-earning years. He's only 102nd in career earnings, at least $6M adrift of #50, and still only has one win. He HAS done well in FedEx bonuses and, unless his form disappears again, he's a racing cert for a free ride to the Champions Tour. (Don't suppose he's thinking of that, but it's a nice annuity, even when you're a millionaire several times over.)

7).His Ryder Cup record is excellent and he even gutted out what could have been a vital Ryder Cup half for Faldo in a singles match with Mahan when Hunner was holing everything in sight. As he says, "Some of my best moments, experiences, were on the European Tour and the Ryder Cup."

8).Anyone care what I think? I think Casey is as talented as any British golfer of his generation and six years ago was more likely to win a Major than McDowell or Rose.
For a variety of reasons he lost his way, but part of his getting back on course was due to his richly earned European exemptions and subsequent wins in Ireland and Holland (neither of which titles he bothered to defend).
When he was thus rehabilitating himself in "Europe", he had lost "status" on the PGA Tour, getting into very few events via invitations or "past Champion" status, just 16 in 2012/2013 combined, another 16 in 2014.
It's disingenuous of him not to admit that he was 169th in the world before he won in Ireland in 2013, which leveraged him in to Majors and WGC's and caused his US profile to resurface. Then his Dutch Open win lifted him up another 22 spots, to 62nd.
Europe was good enough for him then and it's a shame he's not coming to any accommodation with the E.T. now. Casey could well be the ultimate loser in all this, and that would do no justice at all to what has already been a very fine career.

9).It was interesting to see John McClaren, recently split from Luke Donald, auditioning on Casey's bag in the Bahamas. Seems only a few years ago that Christian Donald went the same route. For some reason Casey runs through caddies at a rapid rate - perhaps he's "cocky and abrasive" with them too?

10).Many will say rightly say that golfers are independent contractors and who wouldn't take the biggest money-earning opportunities they can find? Personally, I think there's more to life, and certainly sport, than that; how else could I justify being a Pompey supporter?
It would be good to think that Paul Casey might remember that before his career is done, that there's more to one's legacy than dollars in the bank. As it is, for this family-first Arizona homebody, his last four tournaments have all been outside the USA, chasing guaranteed money and appearance fees no doubt.
Regardless, good luck to him; just hold your nose next time you hear Paul Casey interviewed.

g

super_realist wrote:

McLaren wrote:Super

It is going to NI, which isn't British,

I realise you are being your usual contrary and provocative self Mac, but NI very much is part of Britain geographically and politically.
It's not part of the UK, but it is part of Britain.

Ummm it's a pedantic point, but look at the front of your passport - it will say "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", so it's very much part of the UK and not part of Great Britain. I've found this VENN DIAGRAM to be useful when explaining it to the less well informed.

Indeed, what I mean is that it's considered British. If you are born in NI, your passport says you are British
I'm aware of the Venn Diagram distinctions.

super_realist wrote:Indeed, what I mean is that it's considered British. If you are born in NI, your passport says you are British
I'm aware of the Venn Diagram distinctions.

You may be aware, but again, slightly incorrect. If you're born in NI you can choose either UK or Irish citizenship and thus have either a British passport or an Irish passport (which a sizeable chunk of the population do). If you choose an Irish passport issued in Belfast, under an accord between the two governments you are still afforded all the rights of a British citizen whilst in the UK (claiming unemployment, access to health care etc.) but when you travel abroad you are then regarded as a foreign national from the British perspective and fall under the wing of the Irish consulate.

Bob_the_Job wrote:

super_realist wrote:Indeed, what I mean is that it's considered British. If you are born in NI, your passport says you are British
I'm aware of the Venn Diagram distinctions.

You may be aware, but again, slightly incorrect.  If you're born in NI you can choose either UK or Irish citizenship and thus have either a British passport or an Irish passport (which a sizeable chunk of the population do).  If you choose an Irish passport issued in Belfast, under an accord between the two governments you are still afforded all the rights of a British citizen whilst in the UK (claiming unemployment, access to health care etc.) but when you travel abroad you are then regarded as a foreign national from the British perspective and fall under the wing of the Irish consulate.

This is ridiculous.

The country that hosts the Open is the UK. The adjective used to describe things / people from the UK is "British".

I understand that someone from Northern Ireland might want to choose an Irish passport if they have Irish parents, in the same way that someone born in Belfast might want a Spanish passport if their parents are Spanish citizens. But fundamentally, if you are a citizen of the United Kingdom (of GB & NI) you are British, and (should) have a British passport not an Irish one.

Raycastle,
Bob is completely correct. I am from up North and have an Irish passport like my whole family. Most people from where I was growing up in had Irish passports as well. I support the football team from the Republic and don't have much interest in the Norther Ireland team.

Skiddy

So you don't listen to the Queens speech on Christmas day?

Haha I might give it a skip for this year

skiddy wrote:Raycastle,
Bob is completely correct. I am from up North and have an Irish passport like my whole family. Most people from where I was growing up in had Irish passports as well. I support the football team from the Republic and don't have much interest in the Norther Ireland team.

To be fair to Ray, I don't think he was saying I'm wrong (mostly because I'm not) rather that it sounds a bit ridiculous (which is does), but in the words of a golfing philosophical Colossus.."It is what it is"

This is what happens when countries, in particular islands get invaded and partitioned - there can be a schism between the logical, administrative and cultural - just ask someone from Cyprus.

According to the bbc Rory is adding a couple of extra events before the masters, and nbc golf tweeted that one of them would be the Northern Trust at Riviera.

The quotes from him in the bbc article suggest he is keen to get back to number 1 and possibly felt under cooked going into the masters last year.

Will adding more events make any difference to his masters prep and will he loose events later in the season?

Mac,
The other event will be the WGC:MatchPlay which is being played before The Masters in 2016, compared to May in 2015 which was an anomaly. Riviera the only real addition.

I see. The bbc didn't bother to mention what had been "added".

Do you think he will play more PGAT events in 2016 compared to 2015?

Yes - provided he doesn't get injured.

Wouldn't think so, apart from Riviera and the ones he missed due to his injury.
He keeps a pretty sensible schedule these days, don't you think? Gone are the money-grabbing treks he used to make for appearance fees, pretty much bread and butter schedule now - tho' which Tour is bread and which is better, I'll leave to you! Or Shotrock.

kwinigolfer wrote:Wouldn't think so, apart from Riviera and the ones he missed due to his injury.
He keeps a pretty sensible schedule these days, don't you think? Gone are the money-grabbing treks he used to make for appearance fees, pretty much bread and butter schedule now - tho' which Tour is bread and which is better, I'll leave to you! Or Shotrock.

Although Mac would have us believe if he keeps on double dipping he'll end up brown bread.

Bob_the_Job wrote:

skiddy wrote:Raycastle,
Bob is completely correct. I am from up North and have an Irish passport like my whole family. Most people from where I was growing up in had Irish passports as well. I support the football team from the Republic and don't have much interest in the Norther Ireland team.

To be fair to Ray, I don't think he was saying I'm wrong (mostly because I'm not) rather that it sounds a bit ridiculous (which is does), but in the words of a golfing philosophical Colossus.."It is what it is"

This is what happens when countries, in particular islands get invaded and partitioned - there can be a schism between the logical, administrative and cultural - just ask someone from Cyprus.

Spot on Bob. Wasn't disagreeing with you.

Ray

I have conceded many times that Rory can currently maintain his world ranking (although he obviously lost ground this year) while double dipping.

I'd also think he might find it quite easy to get back to number one Mac.
Both the Science Denier and Hitchcock's Vertigo both require sensational years simply to tread water rankings wise.
Pubehead, whilst also needing a good year, has far fewer points to defend.

Jason Day and his wife Ellie were attending an NBA Basketball game in Cleveland when LeBron James chased after a loose ball and fell into Ellie.

Ellie was taken to the Hospital and is recovering from a concussion.

https://twitter.com/golf_com/status/677872042876604416/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

GPB wrote:Jason Day and his wife Ellie were attending an NBA Basketball game in Cleveland when LeBron James chased after a loose ball and fell into Ellie.  

Ellie was taken to the Hospital and is recovering from a concussion.

https://twitter.com/golf_com/status/677872042876604416/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Meanwhile Jason is recovering from vertigo.

Pancake Day

Another Day in Cleveland.

It looks like STP might be Geoff Ogilvy

https://twitter.com/secrettourpro/status/679412505958051840

https://twitter.com/Changbay/status/679414795163017216

then again, it could be a Red Herring

So it wasnt Wieseberger?

But as one person Tweeted, "Whose house you at?"

Apparently the world number 414 thinks he can win a major and make the US Ryder Cup team in 2016.

I take it that's Woods super? There was a golf channel special monday evening (possibly a repeat) where Diaz, Chamblee et al were sat around looking back on Woods' career and talking about him in the past tense. It was as if he had announced his retirement that day, but when I checked the news there was nothing.

This is all very odd, one week Woods is resigning himself to retirement, the next he is talking about winning more majors. No consistency with the man at all.

http://www.golfcentraldaily.com/2015/11/new-tiger-woods-board-game-set-to-be.html?m=0

last minute stocking filler

Just wanted to pop in and say Thanks Kwini for your articles throughout the year, they're really greatly appreciated and I don't always get a chance to engage in a way that I think they demand, hopefully I can do them justice in 2016. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you and all of the 606'ers that contribute to this board!! Westwood for a major in 16, that's all I ask Santa, oh that and a healthy back for Mr Woods...

Thanks B_t_b, Happy Boxing Day.

The greatest gift of all has just arrived, my Xmas Remy Martin, so all is good with the world, or at least until Pompey tee it up with Leyton O at 3.00 p.m.

Happy Boxing Day to all, and Happy Christmas to those of us laggards west of the Azores.

(PS: Not sure that your Santa hasn't had a snort or two too many of "The Knot" which also just arrived, courtesy of an Irish Claus. But good luck to lw1 and get well soon to TW, show us what you're made of Tiger!)

Cheers,

Pretty sure 9C and LW are part of the has-been generation now Kwini.
Would like to see LW regain some form, but the game has moved on from 9C, and I imagine the only interest to see him these days is to see how much of a car crash his game has become.

Another week, another 9C false dawn of 'I'm getting there', now it seems he's on the crack and thinks he can win a major and make the RC team. And to think before this 9C it seemed had no sense of humour. Well done 9C, it's the way you tell them.

Kwini, I will raise your Remy with a gin (Silverback) made a couple of postcodes from my house! First batch released 23.12 ( that's 12.23 for some posters). Not normally what I would reach for first, but it is lovely! Huge resurgence in small distilleries in UK which is good to see. PUP!

Happy Boxing Day to everyone. I won't join in raising a glass as we're off to see family shortly and guess who is driving? Mind you, watching England struggle against the Saffers in the first test is enough to drive anyone to drink

Surely no one is putting too much stall in meaningless friendly cricket matches LP?
They don't actually count for anything do they?

Pretty good article here, based on an interview with John Huggan.
Lots of excellent points made and well worth the read:

http://www.golfshake.com/news/view/9220/In_conversation_with_John_Huggan.html

Some real talking points included that will most likely never be properly discussed, largely because it's increasingly less in the interests of the media to cover golf critically.

Excellent piece. Another reason we appreciate your work on here Kwini. Critical review never hurt anyone - unless they weren't the real deal in the first place!

Kwini

I think we need some clues. I am totally stumped.

Come on Mac! It's not like you to give up . . . . . . . .

If there's any hint at all, it might be that the three golfers in each clue are linked together by what they haven't done as much as by their achievements. Otherwise they'd be easily googleable.

sorry wrong thread, but thanks for the clue.

Confirmation that Lowry, McIlroy and Rose will be no-shows at Kapalua next week.
But Cejka, Harrington, Knox, Lingmerth and McDowell are committed to be on parade.

And it seems Furyk is the only other no-show for Kapalua; imagine it'll be at least another month before we see his beak again.

I still don't get Lowry's schedule, he seems pretty sure that he will have Rory Mcilroy esque run of play across two tours in the spring/summer. Fedex cup points are not an average like those on the OWGR so the system lends itself to playing ok often, meaning you don't need to try and play very well on a few occasions.

Agree 100% Mac; have questioned Shane's schedule making in the past and this just makes no sense, especially as he'll be playing West Coast tournaments later this month.

kwinigolfer wrote:Agree 100% Mac; have questioned Shane's schedule making in the past and this just makes no sense, especially as he'll be playing West Coast tournaments later this month.

Shane is also playing Eurasia Cup in Malaysia the week after Hyundai.

kwinigolfer wrote:Agree 100% Mac; have questioned Shane's schedule making in the past and this just makes no sense, especially as he'll be playing West Coast tournaments later this month.

Turning down the opportunity to play Kapalua makes no sense to me...
It's a small field event with a decent purse
It's on one of the most scenic and interesting layouts on the planet
It's in a genuine tropical paradise
The next tournament is only a 20 minute plane hop away
Perfect way to ease back into the competitive season

Makes sense. The course is too hilly for him..

JAS wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Agree 100% Mac; have questioned Shane's schedule making in the past and this just makes no sense, especially as he'll be playing West Coast tournaments later this month.

Turning down the opportunity to play Kapalua makes no sense to me...
It's a small field event with a decent purse
It's on one of the most scenic and interesting layouts on the planet
It's in a genuine tropical paradise
The next tournament is only a 20 minute plane hop away
Perfect way to ease back into the competitive season

Agree. Add to that American sized portions at dinner so he'll never go hungry.

Maybe he heard about the long walks between holes?

The key to this, of course, is that most of the double-dippers have to calibrate their schedule on the PGA Tour based upon their increasing or decreasing likelihood of playing FedEx Play-Off events.
If you play poorly, obviously the chances of contesting more than one or two decline dramatically so guys like Shane almost have to plan on playing 13 - 15 events before the Barclays, UNLESS they can see themselves off to a cracking start to the season. Unfortunately, Shane will have played just one tournament in the first nine (at least) which amounts to almost 25% of the pre-Play-Offs season.
Add in the complication of the Olympics and the resultant funky schedule, and it looks like he'll spend a lot of time playing "catch up". Unless he can rattle off some good finishes early.

I think Shane has decided to be a player who is content making a decent living being a pro golfer. He knows he doesn't have the professional dedication it takes to be a true top class player and so doesn't bother trying.

I can't really blame him, everyone can be lazy and get in a habit, can't imagine anyone other than a golfer doing this sort of thing, although a few footballers spring to mind.

Maybe super_, Though I'd say he's proved he's a top class talent.
But he's got a free pass on the PGA Tour for three years, including this season, and you'd think even the laziest sports person would want to make hay during that time.
Looks to me like he's being poorly advised.

PXG has only been in business (officially) for 9 months but already has signed up Zach, Billy Ho, James Hahn, CHIII, Captain Kirk and Ryan Moore.

And Nike have added to Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau.

In other Nike news, ETW has moved up in the owgr's, from 416 to 413. Must be the equipment.