Casey ends two-year drought

GOLF TOUR NEWS:PAUL CASEY ended a two-year stretch without a tournament victory yesterday when he won the Abu Dhabi Championship for the second time in three years. It was, the Englishman said, his most satisfying triumph, but it might also have been his most fraught.

Four shots ahead at the start of the round and six shots in front at the turn, Casey crept over the finishing line, beating his playing partner for the day, the German Martin Kaymer, and South African Louis Oosthuizen by just one shot, on 267, 21 under par.

Two Irishmen of some promise, Rory McIlroy and Pádraig Harrington, rounded out the top five, tying each other with a 72-hole total of 271, 17 under par and four shots behind the winner.

“I didn’t look at leaderboards all day,” said Casey.

This was probably just as well because if he had he would have had the fright of his life. Still, one shot is enough, and for the Englishman this win was imbued with a significance far greater than the €245,000 addition to his bank balance.

“This is my most satisfying victory,” he said. “I felt pressure on this one, because I just didn’t like that feel of not having won for two years.

“It feels like pay-off for all of the effort I have put in over the last couple of months.”

In the circumstances his relief was understandable. Yet the day had begun smoothly enough for the Englishman, who stretched his four-shot overnight lead to six when he birdied his opening two holes. So far, so good. Two more birdies before the turn maintained his advantage over Kaymer.

The fun, or from Casey’s perspective, the discomfort, started when he bogeyed the 11th. As setbacks go, it was an irritant but nothing more.

The 13th was another story. Eight feet from the hole after a couple of beautiful shots, he stepped up to an eminently sinkable birdie putt, only to be disturbed by a camera shutter during his stroke and left himself with a three-footer coming back.

“Stay in the moment” is lesson one in the psychology of the winning golfer, but as the Englishman attempted to make his par, having taken the time to stare down the noisy culprit, it was obvious his mind was on everything but the matter in hand.

The outcome was as predictable as it was miserable, and having missed a tiddler he walked to the next tee with his lead further diminished.

Agony piled on agony at the next as he hit his tee-shot into the thick rough, a mistake that cost him his third bogey in four holes.

“I was playing for birdies for most of the time, but (after the 14th) I was playing for pars,” he said. In which case, mission accomplished.

Yesterday’s victory will see Casey make a rapid climb up the world rankings, and he will be joined by the remarkable McIlroy.

“There are a lot of good young ones out there now,” Harrington said after spending the day in the company of 20-year-old Danny Willett, who signed for a five-under 67.

“From where I was standing the game looks very easy for Danny. I was very impressed.”

So he should be. Yet if Willett is extremely impressive then McIlroy, who is a year younger than the Englishman, is exceptional.

The Holywood teenager ended his week with a 65 and yet another top-five finish – his third in his last four events. He has now had seven top-10 finishes in the last 10 tournaments he has teed up in.

“The way I feel right now, I think I can get into the top 20 of the world rankings and maybe even the top 10,” he said.

These were big words for a young man, but it says much about his growing stature that they sounded entirely plausible.

GuardianService