Dubai Desert Classic: Emotional Casey reflects on first win since 2019
An emotional Paul Casey dreams of Ryder Cup and Masters success after a first professional win since 2019.
Paul Casey is a winner on Tour again, this time on the European Tour. The Englishman won for the first time since 2019 and added a 15th European title this past weekend at the Dubai Desert Classic.
The 43-year-old Casey who was playing on the European Tour for the first time since 2019 won on Sunday after a final round of 70 that was enough for a 4 shot victory over South African Brandon Stone (-13) and Scotsman Robert MacIntyre (-12).
Casey entered the fourth and final round with a one-shot lead over MacIntyre and everything was set up for an exciting finish. What ensued however was a stretch of four straight bogeys by the Scotsman from the 7th hole onward that all but ended MacIntyre’s chances and gave Paul a five-shot lead to work with.
A difficult 2020 is in the past for Paul Casey
The Englishman admitted to having found life post-lockdown difficult, going as far as to describe it as ‘Soulless‘ and his form throughout much of the second half of 2020 reflected that sentiment with only one top 10 finish last year coming back at the PGA Championship in August.
A couple of months off, a top-ten finish at the American Express, and now a win this past week, have certainly put things into a different perspective for Casey going into 2021. He even admitted to how nice it was having a number of fans present over the weekend when describing what it has been like for him over the past year:
"“It’s been totally soulless. No emotion. A whole bunch of feelings. I’ve not enjoyed it. And I’ve realized how much I love doing what I do, but I love doing it in the environment with people watching and the crowd and the noise — it can be heckling, it can be cheering and seeing the emotion on people’s faces and some people are rooting for the guy standing next to you, and some people are rooting for you. It’s just everything.”"
Casey’s 15th European Tour victory will vault him into the top 20 in the World
The win on Sunday will see Casey jump inside the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking come next week and an inspired Paul was dreaming of Masters success in a couple of month’s time at a place that he has five top-ten finishes in his career thus far.
"“I need a bit of help from those guys, don’t I,” he said with a smile. “Let’s be honest, if we go my best golf against them, I’m going to get beaten. But I’ve got a good chance.”"
Casey said when commenting on his chances at Augusta National against Dustin Johnson, Rory Mcllroy, and Bryson DeChambeau. The Englishman will also be hoping to make the Ryder Cup team later this year and even the Olympic team should the games go ahead this summer.
An emotional Casey reflects
After the final round on Sunday Casey got a bit emotional when trying to describe and reflect on what the victory meant to him. “I feel like I’ve regained my youth,” he said while trying to hold back his emotions. The 43-year-old also talked about how good of a place he felt he was in now saying:
"“I’m incredibly happy at home, I’ve got a great wife, kids, and I guess I kind of understand where golf kind of sits in my life and its level of importance. I’m acutely aware, certainly for the last 10 months or so, of how fortunate I am.”"
But don’t let that fool you into thinking he is content with things, just grateful and appreciative as he put it.