ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 7, 2021

Paul Casey

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. How difficult were the conditions out there today?

PAUL CASEY: Sorry, what was the question.

Q. How difficult were the questions out there today?

PAUL CASEY: Felt like a major, really. Certain holes like 15, 15's borderline unplayable. So, yeah, it sounds like a major, doesn't it. Couldn't hold the fairway, couldn't hold the green. So I mean it's what you want, but it's not fun it's not easy, but it's probably providing great TV and great entertainment and, in all honesty, if I was at home I would sit back and crack open a beer and watch it.

Q. Did it feel better than 2-over par today?

PAUL CASEY: For me, not personally because I stuck a sand wedge in the water and missed a short putt so I felt like I left at least two shots out there. But on any other golf course on a regular kind of Thursday, Friday, level par out here today would be a 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-under on a Thursday, Friday, it's that difficult. And look there's a lot of golf left but as we stand here right now kudos to Westie and Bryson. Bryson for being under par so far. That's a hell of a round of golf. Anybody breaks par today -- has anybody broken par today?

Q. Yes. Matt Wallace shot 1-under.

PAUL CASEY: Wow. Great round of golf. You cannot express and cannot relay to people how difficult that golf course is today.

Q. How do you feel like your game is going into THE PLAYERS next week?

PAUL CASEY: It's all right. Ball striking's not quite where I want it, but I certainly got a lot of short game practice the last two days. In all fairness, it kind of what you need around Sawgrass, you need to have good short game you need to be a good bunker player you need to hole out and keep rounds going. Sawgrass is notoriously difficult and, look, we're only two and a half hours away from Ponte Vedra Beach from here so if growing conditions are anything to go by from what we have seen here at Bay Hill I expect Sawgrass to be in impeccable shape and extremely difficult.

Q. We're going back to the PLAYERS one year from when the shutdown happened. When you look back upon what you knew of the coronavirus when you were at THE PLAYERS last year, what were your kind of initial kind of thoughts as everything was going on?

PAUL CASEY: Well, when we left the PLAYERS it was kind of see you in a month or maybe three. That's what we knew. We knew nothing. And oh how the world has changed. Yeah, it's quite surreal, really. It's still very much not back to normal. So it's getting there, there's certainly light at the end of the tunnel, and we have learned kind of who the heros are in this last 12 months, medical, frontline workers all over the world. A lot of people lost their lives. So it's been, I don't know, there's a lot going on in 12 months. A lot to compute, a lot to digest. Not all of it good. But hopefully some optimism.

Q. Do you feel like you've learned a lot about this virus over the last 12 months?

PAUL CASEY: Look, it's difficult in this day and age it's difficult to find a news source, isn't it, let's be honest, and get correct information. I think I have, but then again I always feel like there's still an awful lot to learn. The more you learn, the more you realize the less you know. So I'm far from an expert in anything other than golf, so no, I know very little when it comes to medical, the medical industry and all I know is I've learned that it's got my respect. When I've got an opportunity to get the vaccine I'll be in line to take it and I will welcome that. Hopefully we can kind of start getting back to some kind of normality.

Q. The job that the PGA TOUR has done, you've obviously been on the PAC and everything else like that and you've had, you've been on the inside of a lot of these conversations. The job that the TOUR's done, does it get like overlooked a little bit do you think?

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, they were phenomenal. We had a PAC meeting basically every week. I mean, our PAC meetings are sporadic at best, every few months. But we were every week we were on the phone as a group. The 16 of us, along with management, CEO's, the board. I mean it was a -- they worked so hard and it wasn't easy. I mean, the PGA TOUR's not immune to not, just the effects of the virus in terms of health impact, but also the kind of economic and, you know, social and mental impact that it's had. There's been a lot of people who work for the TOUR who have been laid off or furloughed and it's been tough. So it doesn't look like anything has really changed on the TOUR, but it has. And it's not been an easy 12 months. But I tip my cap and we have been led very, very well. Jay and Andy and everybody else, there's dozens or hundreds of people that go into what they do. But, yeah, they have led us well.

And the players. The players have been a big part of it. And they leaned on us for our thoughts and advice and I must admit we have got a lot of confidence in what they have been able to do for us.