Tag: Paul Casey

Meet the first five qualifiers that will represent Team Europe at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits

Three years after their decisive win in Paris, Europe now has their first five members of the 2021 Ryder Cup team.

The first six players of the United States Ryder Cup team were confirmed over a week ago, but now, it’s the European side who sees their team finally start to take shape. Padraig Harrington, captain of this year’s European team, has to be excited about the talent confirmed to be on the roster.

Although the final qualifying doesn’t end until the last putt drops at the BMW PGA Championship, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, and first-time participant Viktor Hovland have already secured their spots.

Four more players will automatically qualify for the team after the BMW, and then Harrington will make three captain’s picks to complete the team.

Let’s meet the first five, starting with the number one golfer in the world.

Ryder Cup: Get to know Team USA

Can an Englishman win the British Open on home soil? Rose, Willett, Casey and others off to solid starts.

Could an English player end his country’s British Open drought at Royal St. George’s this week? Several candidates are in position to do it.

The English are coming, the English are coming!

That slight play on Paul Revere’s infamous words could apply to the leaderboard in the opening round of the British Open at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. Four of the 27 English golfers in the field toured the classic links course along the English Channel in 3-under 67 and several others were in red figures and craving to be the first Englishman to claim the Claret Jug since Nick Faldo won his third jug in 1992 at Muirfield. An Englishman can also end an even longer national drought as the last victory on home soil was Tony Jacklin in 1969.

The English trio of Andy Sullivan (67), birthday boy Marcus Armitage (69) and Richard Bland (70) had the honors of being the first group out in the morning.

“It’s probably the one event of the year where you actually don’t mind getting up early,” Sullivan said. “You’ve always got a buzz to come and play the Open.”

Former Masters champion Danny Willett is among a gaggle of players tied with Sullivan at 3-under 67 as is Jack Senior, who hails from near Manchester, and was quite pleased with his bogey-free start. He and Sullivan, who teamed up in the foursomes sessions at the 2011 Walker Cup to go 2-0, explained the plethora of Union Jacks on the leaderboard thusly: “I just think it’s a typical English links day more than anything. There’s no rain about at the minute. That would make it even more an English links day. But yeah, I think that’s – obviously a lot of English guys have grown up playing links golf, are so used to playing links golf. Just the whole comfort thing really, it’s always nice to play at home.”

[vertical-gallery id=778115931]

But playing at home can be a double-edged sword. It’s tough to win in front of the home faithful. It can apply added pressure. I once asked Canadian instructor Sean Foley, longtime coach of Justin Rose, if it surprised him how long it had been for an Englishman since Faldo’s win at the Open and he said no and offered good perspective.

“When was the last time a Canadian won the Canadian Open?” Foley asked.

It was Pat Fletcher in 1954, for those wondering.

“When they start singing the Canadian anthem on the 15th hole, all of a sudden it’s not a 7-iron from 160 yards but a childhood dream coming true. It becomes about being the first since Faldo and remembering sitting on your grandfather’s lap watching the Open championship and thinking someday I’ll be there. It’s about all that. All these seeds that were put in the brain and the soul to get there. In that moment, the seeds have grown into an Amazon jungle and there isn’t much clarity. It’s probably going to be the hardest (major to win) because they want it so much.”

It hasn’t been for a lack of talent. With the likes of Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Rose, you’d think at least one of them would have etched their name on the famed trophy, but only Rose has an Open to his credit – the U.S. Open in 2013.

“I think there was a lean period of time where just basically it was just Westy flying the flag for us for the sort of late ’90s, early 2000s, and then a few of us began to sort of develop through,” Rose said after shooting 67 on Thursday. “Right now I think it’s probably as strong a chance as we’ve had, maybe even ever. The quality of golf that a lot of the guys are playing, Tommy (Fleetwood), Paul Casey, Poults, Matt Fitzpatrick, obviously myself, they’ve had an opportunity to win many majors with Westy, and Poulter has had a couple looks at the Masters. Listen, the lads can do it. I have no reason why. We’ve all grown up playing lots of links golf to be honest with you, and yeah, it should be a style of golf that we all relish.”

Rose, who burst on the scene with a T-4 finish at Royal Birkdale as a 17-year-old at the 1998 Open, made birdie at the first and salvaged a par at the last to shoot a bogey-free round and lift his spirits that this could be the year.

“Winning the Open in general would mean the world to me,” Rose said. “It’s the one championship that I’ve dreamed about winning more than any other, because you know it’s the pinnacle of golf for a British player.”

Count Casey, who birdied two of the first three holes en route to a bogey-free 68, among those who would give an arm or a leg, or maybe both, to achieve his childhood dream.

“I haven’t won one. I desperately want to, but I don’t feel like that’s adding pressure. I just feel excitement every time. It’s like an opportunity,” he said.

Said Rose: “Hopefully Royal St. George’s with the St. George’s cross is kind of a lucky omen this week.”

[lawrence-related id=778116351,778116321,778116322]

Paul Casey ‘sick of it’, is doing things necessary to get past COVID-19

Paul Casey, who says he got the COVID vaccine in Arizona, said he can relate to the urgency to return to our former way of life.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Paul Casey didn’t want to speak for his fellow PGA Tour pros, but the Englishman said he can relate to the urgency to return to our former way of life.

“All I know is that I think like a lot of people out there, like the general public, we’re kind of getting to the point, we just want to crack on with things and get back to normal,” Casey said.

What’s normal anymore?

After a 13-week layoff in June due to the global pandemic, the PGA Tour was one of the first pro sports to return to competition. Each tournament has been played as scheduled and testing and screening measures have been executed without any major glitches. The traveling circus has taken a gradual and considerate approach to bringing back fans of late to its tournaments (in accordance with state and local rules), with as many as 10,000 spectators per day in attendance at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last week.

Count Casey among the Tour pros who already have been vaccinated. He said his wife, Polly, volunteered in their home state of Arizona so that she could get early access to the vaccine.

“Arizona was quite speedy in opening up the vaccine,” he said. “I noticed like the UK have just opened it up to 44 and older. I’m 43, so if I was in the UK right now I wouldn’t even have the opportunity to get it.”

Instead, he’s approaching a very different scenario where he no longer will be required to produce a negative result from a COVID-19 test.

“In another few days,” he explained, “I will be out of that testing requirement and able to just get my lanyard and then cruise on to the property.”

The PGA Tour sent an email to players last week indicating that those who are fully vaccinated will not have to take a COVID-19 test before entering an event.

The days of using “an abundance of caution,” the buzz phrase of 2020, seem to be over.

In New Orleans, fans were required to wear a mask but hardly anyone bothered to do so and no one made an effort to enforce it.

Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Fans pose in front of the Zurich Classic sign during the second round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. (Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports)

Just as player testing is being scaled back and the mask policy is being ignored, the PGA Tour announced the most players in one week to test positive since it introduced testing. All four players – Brice Garnett, Will Gordon, Tyrrell Hatton and Sepp Straka – competed at TPC Louisiana last week.

“Touch wood they didn’t pass it on to anybody else and didn’t affect anybody else,” said Casey, who noted he’d walked through a meeting on his way to his pre-tournament news conference at the Valspar Championship where a Tour official was discussing the vaccine with players.

“I think microchips might have been mentioned in that conversation, I’m not sure.”

The PGA Tour continues to dip its toe into a return to normalcy while fearing for the worst: the dreaded threat of being branded as a super-spreader event in one of its cities. How many fans is too many fans and how do they get back to delivering the on-site client entertainment that made so many Fortune 500 businesses sign up? Those are questions above Casey’s pay grade, he said.

“I’m still worried about international travel coming up,” Casey said. “I’ve got to go play the Porsche [European Open in Germany] in a few weeks and then the Open Championship [in England in July], and I want to go on holiday with my mates. I usually go to Italy, and that’s not going to happen for another year. So, I’m sick of it, and I’m willing to do the things necessary to get through it.”

The PGA Tour will need more of its players to adopt Casey’s philosophy and continue to buy in to doing what’s “necessary to get through it,” as well as determine an effective means to enforce its mask policy – or else just not have one.

Our new normal feels closer than ever, but the fact that four players tested positive after the Tour’s visit to The Big Easy suggests it may be jumping the gun on business as usual.

“I don’t want to get up on a soapbox and kind of scream it, but we all want to get through this, and how else are we going to get through it unless everybody has got antibodies or we get vaccinated,” he said.

[lawrence-related id=778100245,778099275]

Paul Casey goes for rare three-peat at Valspar Championship

Paul Casey has just 3 PGA Tour titles to his credit but he’s won the last two editions at Innisbrook Resort and is going for a three-peat.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Pat Riley trademarked the term three-peat in 1988 while the Los Angeles Lakers were going for a third consecutive NBA championship.

He may score some royalties this week as Englishman Paul Casey bids to win the Valspar Championship and become the first on the PGA Tour to win the same event in three consecutive editions since Steve Stricker claimed the John Deere Championship from 2009-2011.

“It would just be extremely cool, flat out. I think even more so with the gap, as well, with the one-year sort of hiatus,” said Casey, noting that last year’s edition was the first tournament to be canceled following the Players Championship being called after one round in March. “Yeah, it would just be very cool.”

In 2018, Casey delivered a scintillating 6-under 65 in the final round and waited for more than an hour to see if Patrick Reed or Tiger Woods could catch him. That victory ended a nine-year spell between PGA Tour victories for Casey. A year later, he played in the final group and needed to two putt a slick downhill 18-foot putt on the final hole to become the first back-to-back champion of the Valspar Championship.

“I could have putted off the green and I didn’t, that was the most satisfying feeling, halfway through knowing that ball was the perfect weight,” he said.

Asked which victory meant more to him, Casey smiled and said, “Your last win is always your best one because it’s the freshest.”

Paul Casey plays his shot from the sixth tee during the final round of the Valspar Championship golf tournament at Innisbrook Resort – Copperhead Course. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Golf Resort is the site of two of his three PGA Tour victories in 250 career starts. (He also counts 15 European Tour titles to his credit.) What makes this venue such a happy hunting ground for Casey? It’s a ball striker’s paradise, which is right up Casey’s alley.

“This golf course is kind of a 175- to 200-plus golf course,” he explained. “That’s where the premium is, and that’s what I do well.”

This season, Casey ranks first in average proximity to the hole on approach shots outside 200 yards at nearly 42 feet, which is a good 12 feet better than the Tour average. Moreover, Casey has ranked in the top 15 of Strokes Gained: Approach for seven consecutive years and is on track to make it eight, ranking No. 14 this season.

“When he’s on, it’s really impressive,” said World No. 2 Justin Thomas. “I mean, the sound his ball makes when it comes off his irons, compresses it, it’s a short, compact move … it’s fun to watch.”

For Casey to pull off the rare three-peat – over the last 40 years there have only been eight instances of a player winning a PGA Tour event three or more times in a row. In addition to Stricker being the most recent to do so, Tiger Woods turned the trick a remarkable six times and Stuart Appleby once – he’ll have to contend against the top-two players in the Official World Golf Ranking, Dustin Johnson (No. 1) and Thomas, as well as 18 of the top 50.

“I feel like the pressure is not on me,” Casey said. “We’ve got Justin Thomas and guys like that playing this week, and the focus is going to be on them, so I feel like I’m kind of in a sweet spot and raring to go.”

Casey, who has recorded four top-10s in 12 starts during the 2020-21 season and won the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic at the end of January, recalled winning the Pac-12 Championship three consecutive years from 1998-2000 and having captured back-to-back titles at the English Amateur.

“I wasn’t really that nervous,” Casey said of the amateur event. “There was a level of expectation, but it was overwhelmed by actually I felt like there was no pressure because nobody is expecting me to do it, which is a little bit the same case this week.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

RBC Heritage cut of -2 sends a few notables home

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – The laidback vibe of this island treasure ended for a few notables in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. With mild winds the first two rounds and slightly softer conditions under overcast skies in Friday’s second …

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – The laidback vibe of this island treasure ended for a few notables in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links.

With mild winds the first two rounds and slightly softer conditions under overcast skies in Friday’s second round, the 36-hole cut came at 2-under 140. That meant that nine players, including Tommy Fleetwood, finished their two rounds under par but headed home.

In tournament history, only last year’s RBC Heritage – played in the heat of June due to the COVID-19 global pandemic – had a lower cut than this year’s 140. Last year it was 138.

Sixty-five players made the cut.

Here are some of the players who won’t be playing on the weekend.

–

Tommy Fleetwood

-1

76-65

One of Europe’s best and world No. 24 headed into the Masters off a tie for fifth in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and played Augusta National unevenly and tied for 46th. After making birdies on his first two holes in the first round here at Harbour Town, Fleetwood shot 42 on the back nine. He gave himself a chance for two more rounds by making four consecutive birdies in his opening nine on Friday but came up one shot short.

–

Paul Casey

EVEN

74-68

Casey, ranked No. 19 in the world, made a gallant effort of earning weekend playing status with four birdies on his last nine holes but came up short.

–

Patrick Cantlay

EVEN

71-71

After a dull Masters in which he missed the cut, the world No. 10 couldn’t get anything going in the RBC Heritage, with his six birdies offset by four bogeys and a momentum killing double bogey at the par-3 fourth in the second round.

–

Sergio Garcia

+1

68-75

One of the best ball-strikers in golf – a big plus at Harbour Town – hit three balls into the water in the second round. After top-10s in The Players and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Garcia has missed his past two cuts.

–

Kevin Kisner

+2

72-73

A new putting method – he went to the armlock this week – didn’t pay off as Kisner missed his second consecutive cut. In strokes gained: putting, he lost two strokes per round.

Paul Casey wins 15th European Tour title at Omega Dubai Desert Classic

Paul Casey reached a European Tour milestone on Sunday, winning for the 15th time on that circuit at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Paul Casey reached a European Tour milestone on Sunday, winning for the 15th time on that circuit at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Casey, who won his first Euro Tour title 20 years at the Gleneagles Scottish PGA Championship, is the 18th golfer to reach win No. 15.

“Fifteen wins is pretty cool,” said Casey after his round. “I’m all emotional with wins, but with this one. … 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.”

It was his first time playing the Dubai Desert Classic in seven years. The victory should vault him back into the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Omega Dubai Desert Classic: Leaderboard

Casey shot a third-round 64 to vault up the leaderboard and take a one-shot lead into the final round. He shot a final-round 70 to get to 17 under and won the event by four shots. Brandon Stone finished in second at 13 under. Robert Macintyre shot a 74 and finished third at 12 under. Laurie Cantor and Kalle Samooja finished tied for fifth at 10 under.

Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Bernd Wiesberger finished T-6 at 9 under. Tyrrell Hatton, who won the Euro Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship a week ago, finished T-22 at 5 under.

Next week is the third straight event in the Middle East for the Euro Tour at the Saudi International at Royal Greens G&CC in Saudi Arabia.

[lawrence-related id=778086150,778086119]

Paul Casey storms atop the leaderboard at Omega Dubai Desert Classic

Paul Casey used an eagle on No. 18 to vault into the lead at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates.

Paul Casey used an eagle on the final hole of the day to move to 15 under and vault into the lead after the third round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates.

Casey didn’t drop a shot on Saturday while posting six birdies along with the eagle. His 64 tied the lowest round of the tournament and pushed him a shot ahead of Robert MacIntyre and two ahead of Brandon Stone.

To his credit, Casey used a booming driver to find advantageous positions throughout the day in gaining the lead.

Omega Dubai Desert Classic: Leaderboard

“To finish off with an eagle was pretty cool. You can never say flawless … it was very controlled, challenging at the same time with a little bit of wind here and there,” said Casey, an Arizona State product. “The strong asset I have in this game is the way I drive it, the length. The game has gone more and more towards length and I’m fortunate that I’m still able to lean on that strength and compete out here.”

Sergio Garcia, who bolted out on Thursday with a 66 but followed with a pedestrian 73 on Friday, jumped back within range of the leaders with a third-round 67, which puts him five strokes behind Casey heading into the final round.

Other notables near the top are Justin Rose (-8), and a strong group at 7 under that includes Tommy Fleetwood, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Shane Lowry.

[lawrence-related id=778085270,778081943,778081492,778078047]

COVID-19: PGA Tour’s American Express tourney cancels pro-am format for 2021

The pro-am format has been a staple of the Tour’s annual stop in the Desert from Bob Hope to presidents and more, but not in 2021.

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc with the sports calendar and while the show will go on at the American Express, it will do so without the celebrities in a pro-am format that has been a staple of the tournament since its debut in 1960. As a result, the tournament held from Jan. 21-24 in La Quinta, California, will be contested this year on only two courses: PGA West’s Stadium Course (host) and Nicklaus Tournament Course.

Given the current local climate in Riverside County caused by COVID-19, and considering national travel associated with the event, the tournament will be played with neither the traditional multi-day pro-am format nor ticketed spectators. The three-day pro-am format is expected to return in 2022.

“The pro-am format at the American Express has been one of the unique and long-standing traditions on the PGA Tour,” said Tyler Dennis, executive vice president and president, PGA Tour. “This decision by the PGA Tour to modify the pro-am format due to the current COVID-19 climate locally was made out of an abundance of caution with the full support from American Express and the Mickelson Foundation. We are fully committed to continuing the positive impact on local charities to the same degree as past years, if not more, and we are grateful to American Express for their support in doing so. We fully expect and look forward to the return of the traditional pro-am format in 2022.”

To help deliver on the tournament’s charitable goals, American Express and tournament officials will host the American Express Charity Challenge – a televised nine-hole exhibition match hosted by Phil Mickelson on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m. PT. The event will feature American Express ambassador Tony Finau and Paul Casey alongside celebrity partners for a $1 million charity prize that will benefit a number of Coachella Valley charities through the Mickelson Foundation. Each of the competitors will represent a different philanthropic cause to which their winnings will be donated

“Thanks to the fantastic support from our title sponsor American Express and our corporate partners, we are happy to announce that more than $1 million will go to local charities from the American Express this year despite all of the challenges this pandemic has thrown our way,” Mickelson said. “I look forward to hosting the American Express Charity Challenge with Tony and Paul to help deliver for the local charities.”

In addition to the charity exhibition, a local pro-am will be conducted on Wednesday morning. The Wednesday pro-am, an integral part of tournaments that drives local charitable giving, returned early in the 2020-21 Tour season as part of a phased approach since the Tour’s return to golf in June, successfully being played over the past six months with a limited number of amateur participants and a stringent health and safety plan, including COVID-19 testing.

For decades the American Express was hosted by comedian Bob Hope and the celebrities that competed in the pro-am included the likes of Presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton all playing together in 1995.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which also includes a celebrity pro-am format and is scheduled for Feb. 11-14 in Pebble Beach, California, still is committed to moving forward with the pro-am portion of its event as it has since the tournament was formed in 1937. Toby Keith and Josh Duhamel were the latest celebrities to be announced as participants this week.

Paul Casey flips on playing in Saudi Arabia: ‘I have always been open-minded and willing to learn’

Casey, a UNICEF ambassador, decided against playing in the European Tour’s event in Saudi Arabia in previous seasons.

Paul Casey responded to those attacking him for hypocrisy after his past stance against playing in Saudi Arabia — and now agreeing to play there in 2021.

Casey, a UNICEF ambassador, decided against playing in the European Tour’s event in Saudi Arabia in previous seasons.

The Tour, Saudi Arabia and the tournament, which featured Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau last year, came under intense scrutiny in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Johnson won the inaugural event in 2019 and finished second to Graeme McDowell last year.

“There are a lot of places in the world that I have played and continue to go, which you could question … some human rights violations that governments have committed,” Casey said last year. “I thought I’d sit this one out.”

But Casey decided he will play in the event this year when it takes place at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club from Feb. 4-7 in an event that matches up against the Phoenix Open on the calendar. He certainly isn’t alone.

Johnson, DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and McDowell will all be in the field as well.

After Casey took some heat for playing in the event on social media, he insisted that he took the invitation only after significant thought. Some have said the Saudis are using sports to “sportswash” any human rights violations the country has allowed.

“This is not a decision I’ve taken lightly. I wasn’t comfortable going in the past, but I have always been open-minded and willing to learn. I believe sport has the power to affect change. I’ve listened to the Saudi’s commitment to this and their vision for the future,” Casey said in a statement released to Golfweek a few other select members of the media.

“They have successfully hosted two professional ladies tournaments which shows that Golf Saudi have big plans not only for professional golf, but more so for grassroots and the next generation.”

The male guardian system in Saudi Arabia means that legally, from birth until death, a woman must rely on a man – usually a father or a husband – to make certain decisions or approvals on her behalf.

Yet the first women’s golf events ever held in the Kingdom took place from Nov. 12-19 at Royal Greens Golf Club on the Red Sea Coast near Jeddah.

“It is always better to include rather than exclude when eliciting change, thus I hope my participation will make a difference and I am looking forward to seeing these changes in person,” Casey said.

[lawrence-related id=778069887,778024117,778023167]

Paul Casey leads assault on par in the first round of the Masters; Tiger Woods lurking

Much time has passed since the 2019 Masters. The world waited a bit longer because of weather, but ultimately, Thursday was a good show.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – After waiting 578 days since the 2019 Masters concluded, the excruciatingly long interval continued as the silence of this year’s patron-less tournament was shattered by thunder and pounding rain on Thursday when suspension of play had a tee time on the first day of the first Masters in November.

Once the storms cleared, however, a host of players – including one Tiger Woods – more than made the wait worthwhile for the spectators all over the world eager to watch the annual rite of spring that was moved to the fall because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

After Mother Nature politely allowed Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player to hit the honorary tee shots Thursday morning to inaugurate the 84th edition of the Masters, torrential outbursts from above delayed play just shy of three hours. But then an eruption of red numbers started filling up the famous white scoreboards at Augusta National, providing an instant fall classic, if you will.

Chasing his first major, Paul Casey took up residence atop the leaderboard with a bogey-free, 7-under-par 65, two shots clear of Webb Simpson and Xander Schauffele, who finished in a tie for second last year.

MASTERS: Leaderboard | How to watch

“I did the right things when I needed to, and to be honest, you rarely walk off this golf course going, it could have been two or three better, but it kind of felt that way,” said Casey, who made five birdies and eagled the par-5 second. “I don’t want to be greedy. I’m very, very happy with my 65.”

Also in the mix at 68 was 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, Lee Westwood and Hideki Matsuyama.

Oh, and Woods, the defending champion, five-time Masters winner and 15-time major victor who birdied three of his first seven holes.

“I did everything well,” said Woods, who also is in line to win a record 83rd PGA Tour title. “I drove it well, hit my irons well, putted well. The only real bad shot I hit today was I think 8. I had a perfect number with a 60-degree sand wedge and I hit it on the wrong shelf. Other than that, I just did everything well.

“The only thing I could say is that I wish I could have made a couple more putts. I missed everything on the high side. Putts just aren’t moving, so it’s just different with as slow as they are and then with the weather delay, the amount of rain they’ve had. The golf course is going to change a lot.”

In all, 27 of the 48 players who finished play broke par.

Among the 44 players who did not finish, world No. 3 Justin Thomas was at 5 under (through 10 holes).

“I’m playing well,” Thomas said. “It’s not like I’m playing bad or anything. But it’s not like I was sticking it really close or anything like that. I made a bad bogey on 7 with a gap wedge, had another chance on 9. But I played 10 holes. I’ve got a lot of golf left. Just go home and get some rest. It’s a long day tomorrow.”

At 4 under were 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott (10 holes), Matthew Wolff (11) and Dylan Frittelli (nine holes). World No. 1 Dustin Johnson was 3 under through nine holes.

Of the 44 players who were unable to finish, 23 were under par. Play is scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. ET Friday. If there are no delays, the second round is scheduled to be begin at 9:35 a.m.

[vertical-gallery id=778075043]

“It’s probably as easy as it’s going to play,” Oosthuizen said after finishing his round. “I hit 4‑irons to the greens where it plugged, I hit 7‑wood into a green and it plugged. I don’t think we’ll ever get an opportunity to go at pins like that.

“Very different to what we’re used to playing.”

Players haven’t gotten used to the lack of volume, either, since the PGA Tour resumed play in June after a 13-week break due to COVID-19. Only recently have a limited number of fans been allowed to attend tournaments. For the most part, the players have missed the applause and roars and been challenged to create intensity and momentum. Especially this week, as roars will not be ripping through the Georgia Pines.

“It feels like you’re out here preparing for a Masters, not really playing in a Masters,” Kevin Kisner said after a 71.

But Casey is feeling it here at Augusta National.

“I was vocal earlier in the year about not enjoying golf in a pandemic,” he said. “I’m acutely aware I’m in a very fortuitous position. I still get to be a professional golfer and play championship golf, but I didn’t know how the fan-less experience would be. And so far, I’ve not enjoyed it, and I’ve lacked energy.

“The Masters, though, it still has a buzz to it. There’s an energy and a little bit of a vibe. Yes, it’s clearly a lot less than what we are used to, but there’s something about this place. As soon as I stepped foot on property on Monday, I’ve never been so happy to pass a COVID-19 test in my life.”

His scorecard provided further proof.

[jwplayer 9LNsqLaz-vgFm21H3]

[lawrence-related id=778075396,778075395,778075337,778075282]