SLYNC.IO DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 28, 2022

Paul Casey

Emirates Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. What's your assessment of your title defense so far?

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, it's all right so far. I mean, I made some mistakes yesterday but wind picked up today ask wasn't feeling 100 percent. Tweaked my shoulder or my neck, so I wasn't physically right there. So, not unhappy. I'm actually quite happy.

Q. We saw you sort of getting on and go in treatment as you were on the way around this morning. What's the prognosis?

PAUL CASEY: It's just a muscle, I don't know what it is, stiff neck, basically, plain and simple. I'm not a doctor so I have no idea. It just went this morning I went and picked up a tee on the range after hitting a tee shot, and it just went. Nigel Tilley, one of the physios, on the tour out here who is amazing. He's been sticking his thumb in it as often as he can trying to loosen it up. In fact, Nigel was with me at the Olympics last year, so he's always here to help myself and others. I did really well -- I did a really good job of manage it and hitting it around. I didn't hit some very good golf shots, but sometimes you have to just manage things and I did.

Q. The time-honured phrase, beware of the injured golfer, is that something you need to lean on going into the weekend?

PAUL CASEY: Seriously, I need full physical ability, honestly, if you want to try and compete against the guys at the top of the leaderboard, so I'm hoping I actually feel better tomorrow. To be honest, I will. It's probably just something as simple as not being hydrated. Maybe not -- definitely not enough sleep last night, and that's what happens, isn't it.

Q. Jet-lag, presumably?

PAUL CASEY: Pillow's too soft.

Q. Your assessment of the course which a lot of the players have been saying has a different kind of character to it now that the changes have been made.

PAUL CASEY: I'm not sure how much different character. I think the 13th tee is a really kind of nice change for us. We're actually utilising a tee from the 9th, one of the four tees there. Makes that tee shot I think just much more receptive and agreeable. The character is still the same.

I mean, the difficulty is the greens and they are very new, and they have done a wonderful job of getting the grass down. It's just the nuances and all the previous knowledge that you would have had, guys like myself, and how the putts break is basically out the window. You're seeing the ball wander a little bit because the greens are to the quite there yet. This place has great character, and the holes and the shot values are still very much the same.