Lost In Translation

Paul Casey has reason to smile: He is playing some solid golf and his life is in order after a 2004 controversy

Weight lifted: Starting in late 2005, Casey benefited from sessions with a sport psychologist.

By Tim Rosaforte

Photo By Dom Furore

April 6, 2007

Paul Casey has recovered. He no longer has weekends where he shuts himself inside his London apartment and refuses to go outside. His panic attacks on practice ranges while warming up for tournament rounds—such as the day at Pinehurst at the 2005 U.S. Open when he started having back spasms—are a thing of the past. His website no longer is inundated with hundreds, even thousands, of hate e-mails. His friends and family, who at this time two years ago believed Casey was on the verge of a physical and emotional breakdown, are breathing easier. Casey's dark days are finally behind him.

Casey is the Englishman who said some things about Americans he probably should not have and paid the price—many times over. The controversy stemmed from a 2004 Sunday Times interview in which Casey, while initially talking about how European Ryder Cuppers felt about their U.S. opponents, opined on Americans' lack of worldliness ("The vast majority of Americans simply don't know what's going on."). Those turned out to be incendiary words at an incendiary time. The war in Iraq was a year old, and anti-American sentiment around the world was growing. Casey got caught in the backlash. He was mocked, ridiculed and cast as something he insists he was not and is not: an American hater.

How could Casey hate America? He spent three years at Arizona State, lives in Scottsdale part of the year, dates an American woman, takes his lessons from an American swing coach and shops in American supermarkets. "I love it here," he says one day over breakfast at Whisper Rock, his home club in Scottsdale. "I pay my taxes. I've got a pickup in the garage."

But the controversy nearly broke Casey, both in body and in mind, and only recently has he managed to claw his way back to where he was before those words were printed. Now 29, Casey is once again viewed as one of the game's best young players. He was a hero for Europe during last year's resounding Ryder Cup triumph over the U.S. in Ireland. He is the reigning European Tour player of the year and a viable threat at this week's Masters. And, along with Henrik Stenson, he is in the vanguard of a generation seemingly poised to take over from the likes of Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer, José Maria Olazábal and others. Best of all, Casey no longer is viewed as the British kid who popped off and lost his way. "What happened, happened," says Ernie Els, his neighbor at London's Wentworth golf community. "I don't think people even remember that.

"You know, I'm still not sure what he said or what was written," says Els, "but I think it was a naïve way of Paul saying how much [the Europeans] love to win the Ryder Cup, and obviously it was blown up a little bit. He should have known better, to be honest, because you shouldn't say things like that. But I do feel he got a real raw deal from a lot of people. It looked like his spirit was broken by people who turned their backs on him, basically to teach him a lesson."

Casey nods when told of Els' description. "You could see where I was breaking down," he remembers. "My mind was breaking down. My body was breaking down. If there is a happiness scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the pinnacle and 1 being suicidal, I wasn't a 1, but I was low."

The turning point came in fall 2005 when Peter Kostis, the CBS broadcaster who also is Casey's swing coach and mentor, sent him to New York for sessions with Dr. Don Greene, a sport psychologist who works with music students at the Julliard School. Kostis describes the state of Casey's mind and game at that time as "critical"—the stress and anxiety the Englishman was feeling about the resentment being directed at him was starting to affect his golf game. But, during a three-day session with Greene, Casey felt set free. Says Kostis: "If Paul had been forced to play under that level of stress for much longer, it could have been the demise of his career. Once you get to a certain point, it's very difficult to stop and turn in another direction. Don got Paul on a program to recapture his perspective, and more than anything, his enthusiasm."