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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2017

Paul Casey

Augusta, Georgia

Q. Great way to finish. Talk about the round out there today.
PAUL CASEY: It was cool, wasn't it. That's the loudest roar I've heard for Kuchar's hole‑in‑one, other than a Ryder Cup. That was pretty cool. Typical Kuch, isn't it.
It was just good stuff. I had it going early, wish I could have kept it going. I put myself ‑‑ I kind of gave myself realistically very little chance anyway, when you've got that many world class guys ahead of me and you can't give Sergio and Justin Rose and all these guys, you can't give them a four‑shot lead or six‑shot lead. I was kind of playing for position.
But I had a lot of fun. And nice to make a couple coming down the stretch. Just didn't have the fire power all the way through the round. But still a great week.

Q. That's exactly what you said yesterday, you really didn't feel like mathematically you were going to be able to get to the top of the leaderboard, but there's only so much you can do and you did what you can do, right? It's a great round, right?
PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I tried. And I slipped up on 11. And then a couple of opportunities‑‑ I think the criminal error was the ball sat down in the rough on ‑‑ sorry, first cut ‑‑ on 13. It is way longer than it used to be.
(Laughter.)
Whatever it's called.
And I had no spin on the second shot and the ball stayed up on that back left there. And I hit a wonderful putt and a wonderful second putt and walked off with par.
And misread the wind on 14.
And this was it. That was kind of my wasted run after that. Nice to pick up a couple more, but you know, but really a joy.
I kind of step back on it, I've been out here long enough now that this week's been great, I got to play with Freddie the first two days. I saw Freddie up there on the leaderboard today, it was awesome. And nice to be in the mix.
I still think I can win one of these things one day, so it's nice I'm coming back, I know I'm coming back next year to give it a go.

Q. What would it mean for back‑to‑back Englishmen to win this Masters?
PAUL CASEY: I think it shows‑‑ when I got out on TOUR there was a lot of talk of ‑‑ going back awhile now ‑‑ English golf was in the doldrums a little bit. I think at one point it was myself and Faldo were the only guys in the top‑100 and we were nowhere in the top‑100.
And you look at how many great world class golfers we have now from England, you actually got to give credit to‑‑ it would have been Seve's 60th today‑‑ you got to give credit to those Europeans who kind of paved the way, Seve, Faldo, Jose Maria, Woosnam, Lyle, Langer, you know, who really blazed a trail around here. The reason we play golf is because of guys like that. They were our heros.
So we're just seeing that come to fruition. I mean, it takes a long time. Hopefully, we can inspire another generation in another decade or two. But it's cool to be part of that. It would mean a lot. But there's still a couple of holes left yet.

Q. Talking with Rory just now, he's 3‑under through the day, and he said that this is only the first of the four Majors of the year and he can take a lot away going forward. Do you feel the same way, especially finishing with around like that?
PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I feel good. The game was very good at the back end of last year, went through a lot of ‑‑ it's been up‑and‑down the beginning of the year, really due to equipment changes, you know. Nike getting out of the equipment business still hurts. I mean, I bleed Nike, I've been with them 13 years and I'm going to keep try and be with Nike, part of that family for as long as I can.
But changing equipment has been difficult and now you're starting to see a lot of the guys that, Nike guys, are actually getting it together, Rory, myself, we're finally figuring out our equipment, because we have been with it so long, so comfortable with what we used.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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