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BMW INTERNATIONAL OPEN

June 22, 2011

Paul Casey

EICHENRIED, GERMANY

GORDON SIMPSON: Well, it's a pleasure to welcome Paul Casey back to the BMW International Open. Paul, you had a run at the title two or three years ago when Martin won it, but not quite as close last year, but how do you feel about going into this tournament?
PAUL CASEY: Weren't we watching the football out there? That was my memory of last year.
GORDON SIMPSON: That's a great memory. Anyways, as a Scotsman, it was an excellent game of football, that's all I can say. Anyway, just tell us how you're feeling going into this event.
PAUL CASEY: I'm struggling with the golf game, it's as simple as that and struggled out there again today in the Pro-Am. Ball-striking has not been anywhere near where I wanted it to lately. I love Munich and I love this golf course and I've had some very good results around here, even though there has not been a win yet around this golf course.
My record has been fairly strong, so I feel comfortable when I get on the golf course here. Lots of birdie opportunities and I enjoy the par 5s. I can reach them. So hopefully this will be the sort of turnaround this week to get the game going into the right direction.
GORDON SIMPSON: Speaking of inspiration, or perspiration on the range, that will get you there?
PAUL CASEY: Both. Been a lot of perspiration the last few weeks, so yeah, need something good to happen on the golf course. There's been a lot of grinding and battling and not a lot of things -- nothing going very smoothly. Nothing's been easy. So, yeah, hopefully a little bit of inspiration out there will kick off the confidence and go in the right direction.
GORDON SIMPSON: It's been a good time for Europe, so maybe your time to join the fray, as well.
PAUL CASEY: It would be very nice. It's been fun watching those guys but it's been frustrating not being in the mix.
So it would be lovely to get back there. We have two more Majors left this season. A good tournament this week, I'd love to win. That's the plan, and put me in a good position with The Open Championship in a couple of weeks after this.

Q. When you talk about The Open in two weeks, are you playing the two here on in from Scotland?
PAUL CASEY: No, if my game was in great shape, I might carry on but I need to get away and work on it. Next week will be -- the next two weeks are going to be hard work. Kostis is coming over the week opposite Scottish. Go down to Royal St. George's, check it out. Have not been there since the last time we were there or for The Open. I hear there's no rough from Peter Dawson, and really get ready from that. So a two-week break.
GORDON SIMPSON: There has been weather recently, so it might have let it spring up.
PAUL CASEY: It is and what is.

Q. Do you feel two weeks' work is better than two weeks' play to get your confidence back?
PAUL CASEY: I feel like I haven't been able to build my confidence on the golf course the way I've been playing, so it's better for me to get away from the golf course. I'll put the clubs away for a good few days next week and just get away from it. I've been trying so hard and working so hard, I'm almost getting in my own way. So just try not to try, if that makes sense.
Yeah, and I would love to go to Paris next week, and especially, not just Paris, obviously they won The Ryder Cup for 2018. Good friends with Pascal and Bruno and those guys running it. And obviously the Scottish, I was standing next to Bob Diamond the other day and he said, "You looking forward to playing Castle Stuart?" And I was like, well, we'll see. As it stands right now, I'm hurting myself on the golf course the way I've been playing, so I've got to get away from it.
GORDON SIMPSON: So you've bottled it.
PAUL CASEY: I've bottled it, yeah.

Q. What has been wrong with your game?
PAUL CASEY: Ball-striking. I've just been struggling off the tee. I hit a total of seven fairways in 36 holes at the U.S. Open. I missed the cut by one. It was one of the best performances in terms of grinding it out that I've ever given. I was brilliant. I gave everything 100 per cent. Tried my heart out. But you can't get around this golf course hitting seven fairways in two days, you just can't do it. It's not just that. It wasn't a case of missing a fairway by a foot or two. I explored the whole of Congressional. And that's not something that it -- usually my ball-striking is very good as you know. It's not something I battle with. Part of it is technique and part of it is just a bit of confidence. If I knew exactly what it was, I would fix it right away.

Q. Two questions on your Pro-Am, you played with Leon Haslam, BMW Superbike Factory rider. First of all, are you following bike racing and how did he do?
PAUL CASEY: I'm a big motor sport fan. I don't get a chance to watch much of the Superbike stuff. Yeah, I know he was runner-up in the championship last year. He said he was struggling a little bit this year; he was fifth in the championship. I watch a little bit of it. I see highlights every now and then. I know enough of the names. I don't really get to see a lot of the races on TV, but I think he's very brave and probably very crazy for what he does.
I only found out -- he said his wrist was hurting on the golf course today, and I thought he played some pretty good golf, but he broke his wrist three weeks ago. I mean, who plays golf after breaking your wrist three weeks ago? Hell of an athlete. And I'm impressed he can still swing a club considering he's broken pretty much every bone in his body. And he said, any time you want to go on a bike, come up to Silverstone, which, we'll see, I don't think I'll be doing that (chuckling). But it was good fun playing with him today. His ears are probably bleeding with all of the questions I was asking him about the racing today.

Q. What are your expectations here for this week now?
PAUL CASEY: I mean, I want to win. And I'm very capable of doing that, to get the golf game clicking. It's a golf course I love, and with the length I've got off the tee, I can reach these par 5s when occasionally a couple of the guys in the field or a few of the guys in the field struggle with reaching them. So I think that's an advantage. The rough's thick as it usually is in Munich.
I think expectations are good. I've won one BMW title before. I'd like to start collecting the others if possible. The game is poor, but there's no reason -- I've played poor golf and suddenly turned it around and won tournaments before, so why not this week.

Q. In the crowd, you are kind of a star, in your level, what happens to lose confidence, because kind of interesting that you are in the top group and all of a sudden you feel like something's wrong. What must happen to get the feeling right?
PAUL CASEY: I think little bits of not knowing -- not knowing where the golf ball is going and you look up and it's not going in the direction you're intending it to, and you do that for sort of eight weeks in a row, then it starts to get a little bit frustrating and that damages the confidence.
But I'm mentally very strong, and you know, I think the way I hit it last week, I was very disappointed I missed the cut. The fact that I only missed it by one was a testament to how good I was controlling my emotions. Because the places I hit it, I had no right even getting close to making that cut.
I did a brilliant job of good golf course management, managing a golf game which is not particularly good right now and getting it around, and as soon as that clicks, and it will, because there's always just a moment; I've battled my golf game before, going back into 2005, I struggled with it, really struggled with it. Nothing like this. This is just a blip.
As soon as it clicks and you get that moment, and you go, okay, yeah, a little bit of confidence and it starts to build and it starts to snowball. I think the rest of the game and my attitude are great. So there's no reason why I can't turn that into wins for the rest of the year. That's still the plan. That's still the goal.

Q. During the last months, the No. 1 position in the world has changed very often. The guys who are on top, you know them very good I think. Do you think you could also become No. 1?
PAUL CASEY: Yeah. I got to No. 3 in the world in 2009 and then I picked up an injury. The golf I was playing there, yeah, there was absolutely no reason why I couldn't have carried on playing that level of golf and climbed further up the World Rankings.
GORDON SIMPSON: You only had half a season at the end really.
PAUL CASEY: Yeah, and when I play my best golf, I'm capable of -- as are a lot of guys out on Tour, but capable of doing some special things. Yeah, I can certainly be up there and I can certainly be world No. 1 if I play the golf that I think I'm capable of playing.
GORDON SIMPSON: Thank you very much. Paul, good luck.

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