Casey at Golf Wins!

Casey the baseball player strikes out to lose the game for the home team.

Paul Casey the world golfer steps in and wins one for England and one for himself here in America.

A nine-time winner on the international stage, the 31-year old knows how important it is to win on the PGA TOUR. “It's a little bit like my first win felt in Europe which I can remember very vividly. First win in Europe, first Ryder Cup experience, and now first PGA TOUR win. Three fairly major events in my life, in my golfing life.”

He turned pro in 2001 and won immediately on the European Tour at the Gleneagles Scottish PGA. He recently won the 2009 Abu Dhabi Championship. He has played sparingly but consistently in the United States.

He is the first European to win the Shell Houston Open and he did it in his first start there. The win came in only his 77th PGA start and his third of the year on the PGA TOUR.

Prior to his victory, Casey’s best showing was earlier in the year when he lost to his friend and Scottsdale, Arizona neighbor Geoff Ogilvy in the final match of the WGC-Accenture Match Play.

He played with Ogilvy in the third and fourth rounds at Redstone GC. The pairing seemed to put him at ease.

When asked between the finish of the third round and before the start of the final round about Paul’s game Ogilvy made an unusual prediction for someone who was tied for the lead with Casey and four other guys including Freddie Couples.

“He's playing really well. One of the best players in the world and wins very regularly outside the U.S. It's only a matter of time before he wins here.”

The time came later that afternoon as Casey’s even par round of 72 was the best of the leaders. As the wind blew hard in the afternoon the worse of the leaders was an 81 by Colt Knost in extremely difficult yet playable conditions.

J.B. Holmes shot an early round of 69, posted 11-under par and waited around for two hours and 40 minutes for the finish.

Casey bogeyed the difficult finishing hole to fall into a tie with Holmes. In the playoff Holmes picked No. 1 out of the hat and hit his driver just barely into the water on the left. Seeing that Casey played conservatively and won the first playoff hole with a bogey.

The Major hopeful Casey played his own game on Sunday afternoon to win. “I kept my head down, to be honest, and didn't pay too much attention to what was going on. I just thought it was incredibly difficult out there, so why burden myself with knowing too much. Just get on with it. It's an incredibly difficult golf course with very difficult conditions.”

“You could get at the flags if you're in the right angles and you were bold enough to want to take that chance. I knew that ball strikers were the guys who were probably going to come out on top at the end of today with the conditions, and I put myself in that category. So I thought guys like Ogilvy, Freddie, of course, were the guys to beat.”

“(It) wasn't until the last green I looked up when I was in the bunker and knew I had to get up and down to beat J.B. Otherwise a playoff.

He failed to do that and end it in regulation. The 488 yard par-four finishing hole even with the tees all the way up barely in front of the water played more like a par-five hole. Its average score for the fourth round was 5.1 with only 20 pars and one birdie.

Though battered Casey did not feel beaten after his bogey. “I didn't walk off 18 in regulation thinking I've missed my chance. Yeah, I've got another opportunity and I'm going to go and grab it.”

Grab it he did with a simple mind set. “One shot at a time.” Though playing golf in these conditions was a battle all day as the field averaged nearly 75 Casey was happy to finish and with the finish. “Fairly anticlimactic, wasn't it? I was sort of wanting a fist pump or jump in the air or something. Couldn't really do it with a tap-in.”

The emotional Casey afterwards put himself and the victory in perspective. “You know, the self belief this is a very difficult thing to explain and to work on because you don't want to be arrogant. You don't want to be cocky. But yet you have to have belief in yourself. For me it's just been a lot of hard work, playing a lot of golf, and a bit of time.”

“You know, hopefully I'm not any different than I was as a kid growing up. You know, it's sort of the way I am to people or anything else. I now have that belief when I step onto the golf course. I'm looking to beat guys and not worry about the other guys.

"What am I going to do to get around the golf course in as few a shots as possible? And that's what I did today.”

J.B. Holmes had a lot of time to think about a possible victory as he waited around a long time for the finish. Maybe too long. When asked if his posting 11-under would hold up he wasn’t overly optimistic.

“I don't know. It's tough out there but, you know, every week when somebody wins they always seem to put up an incredible number. Last few holes should be fun to watch for everybody because they're very difficult.”

When asked about the 18th hole in particular he sort of foretold what his destiny would be later on in the playoff.

“Scary, terrifying. It's a very intimidating tee shot. After you hit that, the next shot is just as hard, if not harder. The bail out is right. If you do bail it out you got the bunker shot I had. It's not easy. It's very tough. The last few holes the way they got it set-up is very tough.

Others such as Ryder Cup champion Hunter Mahan who shot a Sunday 68 with a bogey on No. 18 to move up 38 places to finish T6 were a little more critical. “For sure. 18 is just borderline ridiculous it's playing so hard. It's a par five plus.”

A playoff is match play and J.B. did not bail out on the 18th. He was quite direct after losing the playoff. “There's no excuse. I hit a bad shot and didn't deserve to win. Paul did a good job. He played great all day, held it together coming down to the last few holes, and, you know, he deserves to win.”

Freddie Couples was close but could not get it done down the home stretch. “I am disappointed. I felt like I needed a couple birdies, I made bogey the last three holes. I'm happy with the way I played.”

Did age or the fact that he played 54 holes in two days have anything to do with it? “I wasn't tired on 16 waiting to putt. Then after I three-putted I got a little more tired. Bogeyed 17 I was exhausted, now I'm finished.”

Freddie is playing well and who knows what will happen at the Masters? “It was good today. I wish it wasn't quite that hard because I think I could have maybe done a little better without the wind, but I got it around and I look forward to next week. It's my all-time favorite place.”

Casey is at golf again this week at the Masters. With three Top 11 finishes in three out of four Masters starts and his current form he is a likely contender especially if the wind blows as hard as predicted.

We are off to Augusta it is Masters time!

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]