Casey cautious over defense

2008-01-16

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By Andrew Mullen Special to PA SportsTicker

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (Ticker) - Paul Casey is remaining cautious about his chances of defending his Abu Dhabi Golf Championship which starts Thursday.

Casey is an eight-time European Tour winner who is looking to retain a title for the first time in his career.

"I've never successfully defended a title so it would be nice to do that but it counts for nothing when we get up on Thursday," Casey said. "These guys don't care if you're defending champion; ask Padraig or Luke, it doesn't matter."

The 30-year-old rallied from sixth place on the final day at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club last year to edge Sweden's Peter Hanson and Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez by one shot after carding a superb final round 7-under-par 65.

But with British Open champion Padraig Harrington, compatriots Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, Adam Scott and a resurgent Darren Clarke headlining a strong field this week, Casey knows he has a tough task of returning to the days in his amateur career which contained several successful title defenses.

The 2006 European Tour Golfer of the Year won the prestigious Pac-10 Championship three years in a row during his time at college in the United States and also claimed the English Amateur Championship in 1999 and 2000.

"It was my only win last year and it was a great way to start off the new year after the hard work I'd put in over that Christmas period," Casey said. "And it was a start I wanted, a 65 on the final day was really the best round I've played in my professional career, a blemish on the last, but still good. I was ecstatic; it was a very successful week for me.

"It's going to take very good golf to win again because it is an extremely strong field. There are a lot of players who I would like to beat but are going to be very, very difficult to beat."

After his victory 12 months ago, Casey was left disappointed with 2007 despite admitting his game progressed. He was one of a select group to make all four cuts at the majors, securing top-10 finishes at The Masters and U.S. Open.

Casey attributed the disappointments to a mismanagement of his schedule, an issue which he plans to put right this year .

He will split his time between events at home with vital Ryder Cup points at stake as well as the PGA Tour, where he needs to play 15 tournaments.

"This for me really kicks off the 2008 European Tour schedule. This is where it starts to get serious and points get big the money gets big," he said. "My schedule doesn't have to change that much, if anything, I'll be cutting down on my schedule rather than having to add too many more.

"Ever week is important but Ryder Cup points are big this week. The Ryder Cup is on my list of things I need to achieve this year and it will be great to get started. There are so many goals that I want to try and achieve this year, and they will all sort themselves out if I play great golf and I win tournaments."

Scott, meanwhile, has backed the introduction of the Race for Dubai to have the desired effect in halting the exodus of players from the European Tour.

Replacing the current Order of Merit in November, it will culminate in the season-ending Dubai World Championship at the end of the 2009 season.

With a 4.8 million prize fund on offer for the Dubai event alone and an additional $4.8 million for the top 15 ranked players after the tournament, Scott is reassessing next year's plans.

"I think for guys like myself who have membership on both tours it will certainly make it worth considering re-working the schedule to be eligible to get in the Race for Dubai," the Australian said.

"The European Tour really gave me a chance when I was a young kid just turning pro and they extended me a lot of invitations, and lucky for me, I took advantage of them and became a member of the tour and played four full years before I went to America. It would be poor of me to forget what the European Tour did for me. That's why I'm trying to make the effort to get back over here next year to try to support the tour, but I think it's healthy for the game as well."