OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 31, 2021

Paul Casey

Emirates Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q Your 15th European Tour win, come at the prestigious OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic. Sum up your emotions for me.

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I'm all emotional with wins, but with this one,, you said it: This one is such a prestigious event, the history which is behind you, and I can see it from here with amazing winners, is basically a Who's Who in world golf. Dubai have given so much to golf, European Tour golf in general and across the globe.

And 15 wins is pretty cool. I wanted 15. The Porsche European Tour victory in 2019 is the last, and this is 15 and this is an iconic event, so I'm so happy.

Q What's it going to be like to see your name amongst the stars there, Els, Tiger, Sergio, as well?

PAUL CASEY: Seve. My heros. Yeah, it's one of the coolest trophies in golf, isn't it. There are smaller, there are more important, but it's one of the iconic trophies without a doubt, and yeah, look, being in the winner's circle always feels amazing. I think the whole of 2020 has been very strange, still is very strange, and I'm very, very thankful to be able to do what I do and still be out here playing golf. We had some fans this week. They were amazing. Obviously not a lot because we're still in the middle of a pandemic, but look, myself, just like a lot of other people, it's not been enjoyable and it's still -- so to have something like this happen, hopefully that can bring happiness to other people, as well.

Q Do you want to talk about your round, what was the mindset going out there knowing you had the lead?

PAUL CASEY: Foot down. Try to extend it. Try to be like Tyrrell; win by a bunch. Got off to a good start. It was the trickiest conditions all week. I haven't looked at the scores. I didn't look at the leaderboard. I didn't scoreboard watch until I came down the 18th and got on to the 18th green so didn't know what was going on but undoubtedly difficult conditions, so I was just trying to keep my nose clean. Little hiccup on the back nine, bogey save on 15, good par save on 16, but I did what I needed to do.

Q That one on 15, how important was that to keep it to just one dropped shot?

PAUL CASEY: It was a good putt, wasn't it. Very important. Rob is a great player. It was a joy being alongside him today. He might be part of that Ryder Cup Team for Pádraig; he's that good, he really is. He kept me on my toes but he was really the only guy I was paying attention to or could pay attention to, so limiting that to one dropped shot was key.

Q You mentioned The Ryder Cup, and I've seen you just embrace there with captain Pádraig, do you think that's cemented your place on the team?

PAUL CASEY: No, no, no. There is a long way to go. There is-lot of golf to be played. I would love to be -- I was quoted this week as saying that Paris might be the greatest golfing experience I ever had. I think I can take the "might" out. It was the greatest golfing experience I've ever had. And I would to love to be part of his team, and if I'm not playing, I'd still love to be part of that team and help.

Yeah, Ryder Cups are something special. There's a long way to go, though. Got a lot of golf to play and need to keep this form up.