Paul Casey is one of the most consistent players in the world; someone who should have won a lot more than he has. There’s still time though, writes GARY LEMKE in Compleat Golfer.
Paul Casey’s best years on the golf course may no longer lie ahead of him. But to suggest that at the age of 40 he doesn’t deserve to be considered one of the finest players around, and someone who can easily pick up a Major if the cards fall in his favour, is failing to realise just how good and consistent he is.
Approaching the final two events of the 2017 season-ending FedExCup series, Casey had competed in 22 events – all on the PGA Tour. He finished in the top 10 eight times, had 15 top-25 placings and only missed the cut once. That came at the first event of 2017, the Sony Open in Hawaii. Since then, he has gone on an impressive streak, totalling over $3-million in prize money. And he remained a fixture in the world’s top 20.
‘I understand what I need to do to play my best golf,’ Casey says. ‘How to practise, how to train. I have a great relationship with [caddie] Johnny McLaren. I think we attack courses in the right way, although we are always questioning our approach.
‘For example, Rory [McIlroy] was hitting 13 drivers at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and I was out there hitting 3-irons off the tee half the time. Consistency is great, but I’d like to turn it into wins.’
Ah, wins. There haven’t been too many of those. In fact, there has been only the one on the PGA Tour – at the 2009 Shell Houston Open – although he has twice been beaten in playoffs: at the Northern Trust Open and Travelers Championship, both in 2015. But despite the consistency, it’s the Tour titles that separate the good from the great. There have been 13 European Tour victories along the way, but this naturalised American has long pinned his colours to the US mast since first teeing up in the PGA Tour in 2005, and rejoining it in 2009. And at the age of 40, in an era where the twentysomethings are barging their way to the front of the pack, you’d imagine the clock is ticking in terms of future possibilities.
Casey’s story is well documented, although parts of it are embroiled in controversy; some of which might be considered of his own making, but others will point to mischief-making by Britain’s red-top tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror, 13 years ago this month (November).
The Englishman, fresh from partnering Luke Donald to victory at the 2004 WGC-World Cup, gave an interview to the Sunday Times. In it he was asked about his feelings about the Americans, upon whom he had helped Team Europe inflict the heaviest Ryder Cup defeat, 18½ to 9½. Casey had been a team rookie that year, and understandably revelled in the joy of winning the famous trophy in such fashion on US soil.
‘Oh, we properly hate the US Ryder Cup team,’ he told reporters. Anyone with a basic understanding of how Englishmen converse will immediately recognise that the use of the word ‘properly’ in that context is tongue-in-cheek. It could be the same if asked about thoughts on the Queen’s grandchildren. ‘Oh, I’d like to see them get a proper hiding,’ one might say, when the opposite is true.
However, following gutter journalism’s long-held tradition, the tabloid headline writers – not the reporter himself – went to town. ‘Americans Are Stupid. I Hate Them, says Ryder Cup Star Paul Casey,’ the Daily Mirror raged. And so the Englishman immediately became the golfer the US audience loved to hate.
Occasionally, the subject is brought up, but Casey is quick to bury it. ‘I’m not going to talk about all of that. Enough has been said, including by me, an American-resident, American-educated, American-coached Englishman. I’m looking ahead,’ he said at the 2016 Masters.
One of the things he is anticipating is another Ryder Cup appearance, having played in three and tasted success in two of them – 2004 and 2006, with the only blemish being at Valhalla in 2008.
He has been missing in action for the past decade because of his choice to make a living on the PGA Tour, to get back into the world’s top 50 to gain entry to all the Majors, and to create a harmonious environment for his family. Now that he is entrenched in the world’s top 20, perhaps he will relax his stance a little and rejoin the European Tour as a member.
Thomas Bjorn, the captain for the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in France, is hopeful the English veteran will be amenable to the situation. ‘I don’t want to say too much, but Paul is clearly in a very good place with his golf and he has some big decisions to make,’ Bjorn said. ‘We have an open dialogue, and while we don’t know what the next 12 months will bring in golf terms, of course I’d like him to be available.’
Casey, too, seems to have given a hint as to what his future holds. ‘I’m in constant communication with Thomas about the Ryder Cup,’ he said. ‘I’m not ruling anything out.’
Casey has been the highest-ranked Englishman on the World Ranking for quite a while, although he is now beginning to fall into the category of ‘best golfers to have not won a Major’. Fellow Englishmen – both of whom have reached world No 1 – Lee Westwood and Luke Donald – know the feeling all too well.
Casey enjoyed his best year on Tour in 2009, winning the Shell Houston Open and reaching a career-high No 3 on the rankings behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. It was fairly impressive upward momentum, because he had started the year ranked No 41. Little did one know at the time, but his first marriage was already starting to show some cracks.
Two years later he and Jocelyn (nee Hefner, a distant relation to Playboy Enterprises founder Hugh) were divorced. In 2011 he spoke about the problems, how he was struggling to get to a ‘better place emotionally and physically’.
‘Our life on Tour was fun at the start, but little by little it took its toll. My career was costing Jocelyn her dreams.’ Those dreams were in the equestrian environment, with Jocelyn having convinced Casey that they should be far away from the trappings of the elite golf circuit and instead choose to live quietly on a remote ranch in Arizona.
After the divorce, Casey met his second wife as if by fate at a function while attending the 2011 Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix. Pollyanna Woodward is considered one of the more glamorous WAGS on Tour and she is a well-known English television actress and presenter.
They say that life starts at 40, and Casey can be forgiven for believing this is true. He is a devoted husband – his cellphone is even adorned with a picture of his wife in a pose, dare we say, that does little to dispute her being one of the glamour ‘better halves’ – and is loving fatherhood. (Casey and Pollyanna have a three-year-old son, Lex, and were expecting their second child at the end of September 2017.)
In fact, as part of a campaign to donate $100 to Unicef for every birdie he hits between May and December this year, Casey explained what parenthood means to him. ‘Becoming a father was a game-changer for me, too. The joys of parenthood are completely eye-opening. I have always felt blessed to be without terrible hardship and have thought for years about how I might help others less fortunate. But I struggled to find the right focus – until I became a father.
‘My son is the life and soul of everything I do. Children are now what I notice day-to-day. On the golf course, I smile at the kids, because I want to make sure they have the greatest experience they possibly can. And I think, if my son was here right now, how would I behave? How can I make the world a better place for him, and how can I help other children too? I chose to align with Unicef, because to me Unicef is the pinnacle of putting children’s needs first – across the world.’
Perhaps less well-known is Casey’s love of cycling. The month before he turned 40 he went on a week-long trek through Italy with McLaren and 13 other friends, covering nearly 500km. Most daunting was the climbing portion of the trip, 37 000 feet through the Dolomites. However, it wasn’t Giro d’Italia pace, with the sights being taken in and plenty of the local good food and wine being tasted. ‘It’s my release,’ said Casey. ‘I don’t think about golf when I’m on the bike.’
For now, though, he is looking to change to an even higher golfing gear as the 2018 season awaits.
– This article first appeared in the October issue of Compleat Golfer, since then Casey has gone on to take up European Tour membership in a bid to play in the Ryder Cup
