Stating His Case

Paul Casey fills a hole in his r�sum�--a PGA Tour victory--with a playoff win over J.B. Holmes at the Shell Houston Open

a matter of confidence: Despite having compiled a stellar record in his early years as a pro, Casey only recently has found the self-belief to go with his physical gifts.

By E. Michael Johnson

Photos by Chris Greythen/Getty Images

April 6, 2009

After defeating J.B. Holmes in a one-hole playoff, Paul Casey sat answering questions as the Shell Houston Open champion and pondered the fact that he may have won the tournament—his first on the PGA Tour—not with his hands Sunday, but with his legs on Friday.

Make that Friday evening. As it neared 8 o'clock, Casey took on the persona of an Olympic sprinter instead of pro golfer. Knowing time was tight and with just one hole to go, Casey was hellbent on making it to the 18th tee before play was called because of darkness. But this was not your normal green-to-tee jaunt—the distance from the 17th green to the 18th tee at the Tournament course at Redstone GC is a healthy quarter-mile. The run proved the Englishman's claim that he is more fit these days because he broke the tape in time and hit his tee shot 318 yards into the fairway moments before play was called for the day. Under tour rules, Casey was allowed to finish, making him one of just five players to complete 36 holes Friday.

"I think that was big," Casey said Sunday night. "It's been a really long week, and I was just trying to save energy. I'd rather play the hole in the dark than wake up at 5 in the morning, get ready and have to hit that 18th tee shot cold."

Instead, Casey headed to the Masters—a place where he has had some success—on a hot streak. But more than Casey's game, it is his new-found confidence that should have opponents concerned.

"I'm finally getting to the stage where I'm starting to have belief in myself," said Casey, who credits his instructor of eight years, Peter Kostis, as the reason. "I'm a top whatever I was, 12th in the world or something like that, coming into this week. It's time to start believing that I am in that group and that I can be a top-10 player in the world and maybe a top-five."

It's difficult to believe a player with Casey's credentials would lack confidence. As a sophomore at Arizona State he shot an NCAA-record 60 in the final round of the Pac-10 Championship, erasing an eight-stroke deficit to win. As a professional he has nine international victories and has played on three European Ryder Cup teams. Still, Casey says, "The self-belief thing is very difficult to explain and work on because you don't want to be arrogant. You don't want to be cocky."

Arrogant and cocky. Two words that were often used to describe Casey after his public relations blunder after the 2004 Ryder Cup, when he spoke ill about the American team—an episode likely forgotten faster than most would have thought due to the maturity the then-27-year-old showed in the aftermath. Said Kostis at the time, "In the long-term people will come to understand that Paul is a real solid individual whose heart is in the right place."

Now, so is his head. For Casey, this past off-season was a critical one, and he took several steps, both personal and professional, that have altered not just his game, but his life in a positive fashion. They include his marriage to Jocelyn Hefner; his reunion with old caddie Craig Connolly; his dedication to a workout regimen; and extra time with Kostis (resulting in an improved putting stroke). The combination has given Casey the total package, one that helped him get around Redstone's Tournament course ninth in driving distance, T-22 in greens in regulation, sixth in putts per round and T-2 in putts per GIR. Casey needed all of that to conquer a strong field on a course set to major-championship specs.

As warm-up acts go, the Shell Houston Open relishes its now three-year role as a poor-man's Masters. Although it used to be thought that the week prior to the year's first major was an unenviable date on the calendar, conditions designed to resemble Augusta National blessed this year's event with a near major-championship field that included more than a third of this year's Masters starting lineup (37 players, including green jacket owners Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh). In all, eight of the top 10 on the World Ranking and 15 of the top 20 teed it up in Houston.

What they found were greens hitting 13 on the Stimpmeter, short rough, shaved pitching areas around the greens and similar mowing patterns to Augusta. At 7,457 yards the course even measured virtually the same length as Augusta's 7,435 yards. About the only thing missing was no one thought to put azaleas in the Shell-logoed flower beds.