With a final-round 72, Paul Casey claimed a one-shot victory over Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Kokrak at the Valspar Championship.
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Casey finished his four rounds at the famed Copperhead Course on 8-under par to secure his 3rd career PGA Tour title. The victory earned the 41-year old Arizona State product $1,225,000 and 500 FedExCup points.
Afterwards, Casey met with the media in the press room at the Innisbrook Golf Resort. Here are a few pulls from the back and forth.
THE MEANING OF VICTORY
Nearing the midway point in the season how important is it to you get up into the Top-5 of the FedExCup standings at this point.
PAUL CASEY: It’s always important, I don’t care where it is in the season, I want to be near the top at the end of it, really, so it doesn’t really matter where you are in the middle of the season, I want to be Top-5 going into the TOUR Championship or in the position I was in yesterday going into the final round at TOUR Championship, that’s what I want.
It’s obviously nice, but the win’s more important, FedExCup points are always, you know, look, that’s obviously grown in stature through the seasons and it’s very important, it’s now listed down on guys’ goals that they want to tick off at the end of the year.
For me I look at sort of more global, more world view of the goals for the season and it’s great to tick off — I wanted to win again this year, that was kind of the top of the list, so I’ve done it. I’ll have to look at what the second goal is.
COMPARING FORM TO LAST WEEK
Given last week’s problems what came together this week, what were the elements of your game that caused you to be able to win this tournament this week?
CASEY: My rhythm was out of sync last week. I was quick off the ball, it was then kind of narrow at the top which led to poor ball striking. The cause of that, who knows.
I struggle a little bit around Sawgrass. I think just being here on a golf course that I like so much and doing some hard work, just some basic drill work on Saturday, Sunday was the key.
But my golf game’s been in pretty good shape, so I’ve always thought I’ve been incredibly consistent the last few years but I would almost give up some of that consistency for more victories, quite often I see guys like Rory or Dustin missing cuts but winning very, very frequently.
You get used to watching Tiger for all those years, he never missed a cut. I think guys nowadays it’s more acceptable or just the style of golf, very aggressive. My missed cut last week was probably a good thing.
OVERCOMING CAREER LOW POINTS
You went nine years without the win out here and a lot of guys don’t get through the other side of that. Was there a low point?
CASEY: No, you got to remember, from 2009 victory at Houston to last year’s victory there had been a lot, I had gone through a lot, it was documented, injuries and divorce.
So for me I, there was certainly low points, but for the last five, six years I’ve been very content and my life is wonderful with my family, my wife and my kids, and I’ve always enjoyed the work that goes into it and the process and the quest because golf really is that, you don’t beat the game, occasionally you take a chunk here and there and you make a few birdies, but you have to enjoy that quest for whatever it is and I’ve always enjoyed that.
So the last few years, no, I mean I would like to have won more, but there were victories around the world in other places. You have to take the victories from other places so to speak, you have to take fuel from somewhere else, otherwise you probably would go a little bit stir crazy. But I haven’t been going mad the last few years.
Credit: PGA Tour Media, Getty Images, ASAP Sports
