PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 22, 2021

Paul Casey

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Quick Quotes

Q. Tell me a little bit about your round today.

PAUL CASEY: Frustrating. I played much better than the number suggests. A couple of three-putts out there and a lot of birdie opportunities, and I really -- yeah, just frustrated.

Phil has done us a little bit of a favor coming back to the pack. But still had an enjoyable day. This golf course, I enjoy the challenge.

I think what was interesting is I could hear roars out there, not even from the golf course, I could hear a roar from the beach club when I was on the 14th tee, and those chants of "Phil, Phil, Phil" suddenly sparked up because this is the first time in, what, like 18 months or something that not just we've got fans back, we've got energy at a golf tournament, which is really, really cool.

My round aside, it was just a cool experience to be out there today.

Q. You are in the mix; the golf course is different every day, and tomorrow is kind of a scoring day, no?

PAUL CASEY: That's my hope. I hope tomorrow the PGA set it up so we can maybe make some birdies. Today was I think a really good setup. Slightly different wind direction tomorrow. My caddie told me where it is. I think it's maybe slightly down on the closing holes, down off the right instead of in off the right like it is today. If we can have a golf course that is receptive to birdies, then that gives guys like myself hope because you look at Mickelson and Koepka and Louis is a major champion, if you have a really, really golf course it's tough to catch those guys. I need a golf course I can go shoot 65 or 66 on, something like that.

Q. Talking about the energy and then with the Ryder Cup coming up, guys like Mickelson on the other team maybe, how much are you looking forward to that energy and what have you seen from the other team this week?

PAUL CASEY: I'm looking, I've had a few people go, like PC, we'd love you to win this week if you lose the Ryder Cup, which is kind of funny, because that's not going to happen. We don't know, do we?

It gives you an insight as to what it's going to be like. I think Whistling Straits will be amazing. Hopefully fingers crossed if we're not full capacity, then very, very close, 80 percent or whatever. But we don't know yet.

I've got to get myself on the team first, which is the most important thing, and playing well tomorrow will help do that, get me a little step closer.

But look, Ryder Cups are unique. There's nothing like them. Clearly the Europeans are in the minds of the American fans, which is kind of fun, and I love that. Like that's what it's all about. We expect to have a really tough, brilliant American team that we'll be up against, and I know we'll have a partisan, fun, loud -- I think they're going to be fair to us. Please be fair to us, the fans. That's all we want. We want loud but fair, and we'll bring as good a game as we can and hopefully we give them a good match.