Paul Casey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Casey
Personal information
Full name	Paul Alexander Casey
Born	21 July 1977 (1977-07-21) (age 32) Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg; 13 st)
Nationality	England
Residence	Weybridge, Surrey, England, UK; Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
Career
College	Arizona State University
Turned professional	November 2000
Current tour(s)	European Tour (joined 2001) PGA Tour (joined 2005)
Professional wins	11
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	1
European Tour	10 (tied 21st all time)
Best results in Major Championships
The Masters	T6: 2004
U.S. Open	T10: 2007
Open Championship	T7: 2008
PGA Championship	T15: 2008
Achievements and awards
European Tour Player of the Year	2006
Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year	2001

Paul Alexander Casey (born 21 July 1977) is an English golfer who is a member of the world's top two professional golf tours, the U.S.-based PGA Tour and the European Tour. In 2009 he achieved his highest position, third, in the Official World Golf Rankings.^[1][2]

[edit] Career

Casey was born in Cheltenham, but moved with his family to Weybridge, Surrey at the age of six. After attending Cleves School, Weybridge and then Hampton School, he studied A levels at Strode's College, Egham. He then took a golf scholarship at Arizona State University.

His amateur career was distinguished. In the U.S. he was the first man to win three consecutive Pac-10 Championships (1998, 1999 and 2000). In 2000 he broke the championship scoring record held by Tiger Woods (18 under par) with a 23 under par 265. Back on the other side of the Atlantic he won the English Amateur in 1999 and 2000. He was also a member of Great Britain and Ireland’s winning 1999 Walker Cup team, where he was only the third player in seventy seven years to record four victories without a single defeat.

Casey joined the European Tour in May 2001 and recorded a second in his fifth event and a win in his eleventh, the Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship, ending that season 22nd on the order of merit and collecting the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award. After a disappointing second season he won the ANZ Championship and the Benson and Hedges International Open in 2003, and came sixth on the Order of Merit.

Casey didn't win any individual titles in 2004, but he was a member of the victorious European Ryder Cup team and also won the WGC-World Cup for England in partnership with Luke Donald. Another highlight of his year was a sixth place finish in his first Masters. He joined the PGA Tour shortly afterwards as a Special Temporary Member and his membership of the 2004 European Ryder Cup Team qualified him for membership of the U.S. based tour for the 2005 season. However he continues to play mainly in Europe, and was the leader of the European Tour Order of Merit in 2006, until Pádraig Harrington overtook him in the final event. He re-joined the PGA Tour in 2009.

Casey has featured in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings and was the highest ranked Englishman for a time. In January 2007 he reached a career high of #13 in the rankings.^[3]

In 2006, Casey won the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, beating Shaun Micheel 10 and 8 in a record victory for the final. Casey became the only player in Ryder Cup history to win a foursome match with a hole-in-one on Saturday, 23 September 2006, in Ireland.

Casey sparked controversy in November 2004, when in an interview for the Sunday Times newspaper he reportedly said, of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, "Oh, we properly hate them. We wanted to beat them as badly as possible". Several leading American golfers, including Fred Funk and Davis Love III, publicly dismissed the controversy surrounding Casey as tabloid mischief. Casey later apologised saying the remarks were taken out of context and using the word "hate" was an error. Casey has an American coach (Peter Kostis) and girlfriend and says he "has nothing against America".^[4]

Casey earned his first PGA Tour win on 5 April 2009 by defeating J. B. Holmes in a one-hole playoff at the Shell Houston Open.^[5] This win took him to #6 in the Official World Golf Rankings.^[6]

Casey won his milestone 10th event on the European Tour at the 2009 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, where he won by one stroke over Wentworth resident and fellow Englishman Ross Fisher. This win vaulted Casey to a career high of 3rd in the Official World Golf Ranking.^[7] He had been ranked at #41 at the beginning of 2009.^[8] He is now ranked at #4 as per Official World Golf Ranking site. Casey suffered a rib injury at the 2009 Open Championship and this limited the amount of golf he could play in the second half of 2009.

[edit] Amateur wins

• 1998 Pac-10 Championship
• 1999 English Amateur, Pac-10 Championship
• 2000 English Amateur, Pac-10 Championship

[edit] Professional wins (11)

[edit] PGA Tour wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of Victory	Runner(s)-up
1	5 Apr 2009	Shell Houston Open	-11 (66-70-69-72=277)	Playoff	J. B. Holmes

[edit] European Tour wins (10)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning Score	Margin of Victory	Runner(s)-up
1	26 Aug 2001	Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship	-14 (69-69-67-69=274)	1 stroke	Alex Čejka
2	9 Feb 2003	ANZ Championship	45 pts (8-10-21-6=45)	4 points	Stuart Appleby, Nick O'Hern
3	11 May 2003	Benson & Hedges International Open	-11 (71-69-66-71=277)	4 strokes	Pádraig Harrington
4	20 Mar 2005	TCL Classic	-22 (64-68-68-66=266)	Playoff	Paul McGinley
5	27 Nov 2005	Volvo China Open	-13 (71-69-70-65=275)	Playoff	Oliver Wilson
6	25 Jun 2006	Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles	-16 (67-71-66-72=276)	1 stroke	Andrew Marshall, Søren Hansen
7	17 Sep 2006	HSBC World Match Play Championship	10 & 8		Shaun Micheel
8	21 Jan 2007	Abu Dhabi Golf Championship	-17 (71-68-67-65=271)	1 stroke	Peter Hanson, Miguel Ángel Jiménez
9	18 Jan 2009	Abu Dhabi Golf Championship	-21 (69-65-63-70=267)	1 stroke	Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen
10	24 May 2009	BMW PGA Championship	-17 (69-67-67-68=271)	1 stroke	Ross Fisher

[edit] Results in major championships

DNP = Did not play
WD = withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] Results in World Golf Championship events

DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

[edit] Team appearances

Amateur

• Walker Cup (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 1999 (winner)
• Eisenhower Trophy (representing England): 2000
• St Andrews Trophy: 2000

Professional

• Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 2004 (winners), 2006 (winners), 2008
• WGC-World Cup (representing England): 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 (winner, with Luke Donald)
• Seve Trophy (representing Great Britain & Ireland): 2002 (winners), 2003 (winners), 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Profile on the European Tour's site
• Profile on the PGA Tour's site
• Results in ranking events for the last 2 years from the Official World Golf Ranking site

Paul Casey in the Ryder Cup v • d • e European Ryder Cup team – 2004 Paul Casey · Darren Clarke · Luke Donald · Sergio García · Pádraig Harrington · David Howell · Miguel Ángel Jiménez · Thomas Levet · Paul McGinley · Colin Montgomerie · Ian Poulter · Lee Westwood · Bernhard Langer (non-playing captain) v • d • e European Ryder Cup team – 2006 Paul Casey · Darren Clarke · Luke Donald · Sergio García · Pádraig Harrington · David Howell · Robert Karlsson · Paul McGinley · Colin Montgomerie · José María Olazábal · Henrik Stenson · Lee Westwood · Ian Woosnam (non-playing captain) v • d • e European Ryder Cup team – 2008 Paul Casey · Sergio García · Søren Hansen · Pádraig Harrington · Miguel Ángel Jiménez · Robert Karlsson · Graeme McDowell · Ian Poulter · Justin Rose · Henrik Stenson · Lee Westwood · Oliver Wilson · Nick Faldo (non-playing captain)