THE 150TH OPEN

July 17, 2022

Paul Casey

Mixed Zone

Q. Managed to play all four rounds. How are you feeling, how is the back?

PAUL CASEY: The back's all right. It's like probably -- wasn't moving very good. Probably 80 percent, something like that.

I still wanted to play. It was all right. I hit some good shots and it got better as the week went on.

I don't want to play 17th again. I don't want to go back to 17. Let's not talk about 17. Messed it up all the week. Didn't put it into the fairway to start with. Didn't try to be cheeky. Didn't try to be too aggressive.

In fact, today shot just trying to roll it on the front edge, 5, even before the ridge. And it flew and it turned. There we are. Bugger. It wasn't a word I used when I was out there.

Q. You fought hard to get here. How much did you enjoy the whole week?

PAUL CASEY: I really enjoyed it. I tip my cap to The R&A. I spoke to Slumbers yesterday. I said it was the best Open I've been a part of.

The fact is home of golf is obviously a big plus, but everything, a lot of stuff that hopefully for you as well. The stuff that we see for player services and the way we're looked after, I think the fan experience, branding, open branding, R&A, it's all just really, really -- it's brilliant. I give Slumbers a lot of credit. He's a friend of mine.

Spoke long and hard before he took the role of what he wanted to do, and this is the culmination when you come here. It's been a crappy couple of years, hasn't it?

Q. Ian Poulter said yesterday this may be his last St Andrews Open. Did you take an extra second just in case you thought it was going to happen --

PAUL CASEY: We don't know what's happening anyway. But that aside, I'm 45 and -- I don't know, I've lost my days. On the 21st of July, so a few days next week.

Yeah, I mean, when is the next one? When is it?

Q. Could be the 25th, something like that.

PAUL CASEY: So I'll attend one. That might be on the other side. Yeah, there is that.

Q. What do you think about that?

PAUL CASEY: I'll be happy I'm not playing 17. (Laughter).

Q. When you agreed to sign for LIV, was that one of the things that you took into account that might just be an issue in the future, or did you sign up thinking that it would be sorted out?

PAUL CASEY: I was fully aware of what might be, of the possibility of not playing majors. I think it's -- it's an interesting question for the younger guys. Myself, I mean, I'm hanging on in the World Rankings. I'd like to -- there's always questions.

I know that -- I don't know what guys are going to do. I think there's the option of playing some Asian Tour events. We're going to see what happens with the DP World Tour. But I was under no illusions that my ranking could slide and be out within however long, whatever the timeframe is. More incentive to play well this week as well to try and get points.

For me that's one of the -- I did my due diligence, put it that way.

Q. Are you going to play Asian Tour events?

PAUL CASEY: I don't know. There's talk about guys sort of playing a couple. I don't even know the schedule. I'm sorry, whether they go play something before Bangkok to get ready, or the break in August, because there's one, the next one is in Bedminster. Then I think there's a break before it's Boston or Chicago. I get my dates mixed up.

Do they go play to be a bit sharper? There's a lot of discussion, a lot of WhatsApp chat group feeds going around. I'm not part of most of them.

I think the discussion was if guys turn up en masse, then it lifts the World Ranking points. So if they're going to go play an Asian Tour, they all go together.

Q. Have you been in touch with DP World and PGA TOUR do you expect when you hit your first ball that kind of stuff?

PAUL CASEY: It was only announced -- I was worried. I didn't want to cause a ruckus during JP's event because that was the focus. I saw Jay there and I saw Keith there. But we didn't talk about -- we're all mates. So we actually had a chat and didn't talk business. So I don't know is actually the honest thing.

Q. Have the LIV people given you any indication on when you might know the World Ranking question?

PAUL CASEY: I'm really out of the loop. You're looking at a guy here, I know three-eighths of...

Q. Is that on purpose?

PAUL CASEY: I've had a lot going on. My dad's actually in ICU right now.