European Tour Insider: Casey returns from layoff
By Nick Dye, European Tour Insider
When you are the world No. 3 and leading the Race to Dubai, there's inevitably a lot of expectation about your performance. And Paul Casey will be the first to admit that things have not gone his way at the last two majors.
It's been a superlative year with three victories across the world, including the European Tour's flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, and his first PGA TOUR win at the Shell Houston Open. But the U.S. Open and The Open Championship at Turnberry were disappointing.
Still, the 32-year-old Englishman can look to a top-10 finish at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational 12 months ago, his second there in three years. Casey relishes playing at the Firestone Country Club, and inevitably he starts this week as Europe's main hope of success.
He's had some time off ahead of playing for seven of the next nine weeks, and seems eager for the challenge once again.
"This is a stretch of golf that I'm looking forward to," Casey said. "They're golf courses that I enjoy. I like this one, I like Hazeltine, and it's time to get the good golf going again."
WESTWOOD HO
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Lee Westwood is, of course, another big hope for Europe. He admits to having been kept awake by the "sickening" experience of coming so close, but missing out at Turnberry, yet points to the excellent form he's displayed. Like Casey he's played well at Akron before. He was only a stroke behind the winner Vijay Singh last year.
CLARKE TO CONQUER?
Darren Clarke is one of the few players to have won multiple World Golf Championships events, and one of those victories came at Firestone in 2003. He's another who finished in the top 10 last season.
The Northern Irishman has to be fancied to find some form this week. Clarke points out that it was only one bad hole which saw him slip from the higher places in France recently. Yet in Europe this season, the figures do not make good reading; he's only finished in the top 20 on one occasion. It's almost a year since he won the KLM Open in The Netherlands.
LOOK OUT FOR LOWRY
If Clarke's figures have not been impressive, just scan those of the Irish Open champion Shane Lowry. He's only made two cuts as a professional and has been well down the field, but his will remain the fairytale result of the season.
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That win as an amateur at Baltray in May is the reason the young Irishman is in the field in Ohio. He's playing a World Golf Championships event for the first time this week, as are European Open champion Christian Cevaer, Johnnie Walker Classic winner Danny Lee and Malaysian Open champ Anthony Kang.
KARLSSON KNOCKED OUT
Sadly, Robert Karlsson, the 2008 Order of Merit winner, will be an absentee from the big stage once again.
He played in the pro-am before the SAS Masters, but missed that event and had a doctor's appointment at home in Monaco. The prognosis was not good.
Karlsson is suffering a retinal problem in his left eye and hasn't played a competitive round since the European Open. His physician's advised against playing this week and the PGA Championship.
"The doctor says it's caused by stress and by traveling, and the high pressure situations which are going to happen when you're a performing athlete," Karlsson said. "At the moment, I don't see very well. Straight lines become very crooked. A lamppost, for instance, looks like an S. The depth vision disappears."
TWITCHY STORM
The former French Open champion Graeme Storm is troubled by something similar to the tall Swede.
Storm was in contention, securing a fourth-place finish at last week's Moravia Silesia Open presented by ALO Diamonds in the Czech Republic, but he feels things could've been so much better.
"I have a twitch in my right eye which I've had since The Open and it seems to get worse when I'm a little nervous," Storm said. "The doctor says it's to do with stress and the only way to control it is with beta-blockers, but that's a banned substance, so I'm not allowed to take them. He said staying away from caffeine will help."
SWEDISH SUCCESS
There is a new Swede tasting success. Oskar Henningsson proved the unheralded winner in Celadna.
Two successive weekend rounds of 67 saw him win his maiden Tour title by two strokes. He'd been fourth the previous week in his home country, so it shouldn't be regarded as too much of a surprise victory.
Henningsson, who turns 24 this week, has joined impressive company. He won the European Tour's q-school last November and with Sunday's victory became only the third player to win that high-pressured event and then win a title in his rookie season. The other two were Ryder Cup player Gordon Brand Jr. and twice-Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal.
"If I could achieve the same things they've done throughout their careers, I would be more than happy" said the understated Swede.
LITTLE ACHIEVEMENT
England's Sam Little finished second over the course in the Beskydy mountains, and he's reached something of a peak in his game.
Rather like students waiting until the last minute to complete the essay that needs to be handed in, or journalists needing a deadline to produce their best work, Little has regularly left it late to secure his playing rights for the next season.
In 2005 he claimed the last available spot by finishing 116th on the Order of Merit. The following year, he narrowly missed out, but managed to claw through q-school.
His second-place finish in the last event of 2007, the Mallorca Classic, did the job, and last year he edged through in the last ranking event again.
However, he should be able to enjoy his autumn this time: "It's a bit early for me to play well," Little said, joking. "It's normally October. I thrive under the pressure."
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