Casey and Couples eye their Masters chance

IF Paul Casey and Fred Couples were selling confidence, they’d likely find Rory McIlroy at the top of the queue just a week before he makes his second appearance in the Masters at Augusta National.

Casey won last year’s Shell Houston Open, came home tied 20th in the Masters the following week and then jumped to third in the world rankings by winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

It looked as though nothing could go wrong for the Cheltenham thoroughbred but a rib injury suffered in mid-summer effectively ended his season and he was sidelined for five months.