	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE 147TH OPEN

July 22, 2018

Paul Casey

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

PAUL CASEY: It looks really good out there. I made nine birdies for the week. That's pretty impressive, isn't it?

Q. Any other things?
PAUL CASEY: No, the course looks great. I like the wind this direction. I think it makes -- I mean, it never makes the last few easy, but when you're playing holes like 18 straight downwind, it's got to be easier than some other directions.

Yeah, I'm going to enjoy watching it on TV.

Q. What's the plans for you now? Are you heading home?
PAUL CASEY: A portion of next week, and then the usual schedule -- WGC, PGA, FedExCup. It's busy.

Q. What's your feeling in general?
PAUL CASEY: It feels good. I don't know why, I felt really good coming into this week. I don't know what to say. I love Carnoustie. It's a great golf course. Disappointed that, like I said, I made nine birdies for the week. No double bogeys, just not enough -- I just can't get it going around here.

Q. Why does that happen, or how often does it happen, when you feel really good and then --
PAUL CASEY: Luckily, Doug, it doesn't happen as often as it could. I don't know. I mean, part of that's the vagaries of links golf. My proximity to the hole, if it were to be measured this week, would be way out from even on a links level, which you're never quite as close on a sort of competitive target golf course.

I don't know. Trying to figure it out. Can't. Haven't yet anyway.

Q. As to how you expect to see the Ryder Cup develop, any thoughts on how the two prospective teams are shaping up?
PAUL CASEY: I haven't looked at this. This is a very -- you know, don't take -- you can take some -- use this as a little bit of a reference, but not much of one. It's an Open Championship. We've seen Dustin Johnson missing a cut, some of Europe's team members missing a cut. It means very little from what we're going to face in September.

So as in terms of how the teams are shaping up, I haven't looked at the U.S. Team. I haven't spent too much time looking at that. I know it's going to be incredibly strong. Europe's team, I hope I'm a part of it because I think it's very, very good. Guys like Francesco Molinari have played stellar golf the last couple of months. From where it was 12 months ago, which was where's it going to be, and looking all over the World Rankings, you look at it now, and it's very, very strong.

Q. A few big names, Henrik, for example, just outside the automatic qualifying places. Maybe Thomas would like those in there to free him up on the wild card?
PAUL CASEY: He probably would. That's a question for Tom and not me.

Q. When you see the Americans sort of sharing a house and stuff, does it look like they're getting the camaraderie together?
PAUL CASEY: It looks like it, yeah. Yeah.

Q. That has always traditionally been more of a European strength? Not obviously sharing houses.
PAUL CASEY: I was going to say.

Q. But we talked about the bonds --
PAUL CASEY: They've got something going. They've got momentum on their side. They have the Presidents Cup. They have the Ryder Cup, world No. 1, all the majors. They've got a lot of momentum, and then you throw that into the mix, the fact they all get along, it means they're going to be a very, very good team.

Europe have always had that ability to come together nicely. Yeah, I mean, to your point, yeah, maybe it's something we've had as a bit of a strength in the past. We can't rely on that, but I also think we've got a very, very good team when you look at it as well.

Q. Where does this venue rank in the rota for you?
PAUL CASEY: It's high. The quality of golf required to play around at Carnoustie is high. I've always thought it was one of the fairest of the Open courses we play. You know, very few fairways that are -- sort of 1 and 15 are the two fairways that are a little bit funky, but the rest of it is almost flat. So a good tee shot is a good tee shot. Stays online for the most part.

It's not the prettiest links we play in the rotation, but it's probably one of the strongest, maybe one of the toughest. Yeah, so it's not sexy, but it's great. Links golf could be sexy. It could be, like Turnberry and stuff. I mean, it's cool. It's got something.

By the way, Panmure is really good. Parred the 6th hole, didn't put it in Hogan's bunker.

Q. Did you play there this week?
PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I won a bottle of wine off Slumbers this past week. You can put that down.

Q. Playing with him?
PAUL CASEY: Against him, yeah.

Q. Just on the closing stretch, Paul, today, the pin on 16 looks tricky, going to the back of 16.
PAUL CASEY: It's pretty straightforward from the left, even though I messed it up. Because it's downwind, you can land it on the front, just let it scuttle back up there. 17 is always the awkward one, but then that wind holds the tee shot. So you're just basically playing to kind of --

Q. What kind of clubs are you hitting?
PAUL CASEY: 16 was a 5 iron for me. 17 was a 3 iron off the tee and a 3 iron in. And 18, I smashed the driver because I thought, well, let's see how close we can get to the burn. Probably not advisable, and I flicked it in from 120 yards and made birdie.

So you see guys wearing out the long irons again. I don't see why they would change. I wouldn't expect many drivers off 18 either. Pretty favorable. There's a ridge at about 280, 285. You want to be on top of that. And that right hand bunker, there's three right hand bunkers, but the biggest one is about 330, off the top of my head. Most guys wouldn't -- you shouldn't hit it in with an iron. The other two are so far right, they shouldn't be in play.

That's why I say it's a favorable wind. It's a comfortable wind. Anybody under the pressure, it's kind of the wind you want.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297