Casey keen on second Golden jacket

Paul Casey will be thinking of his closet as well as his clubs when he takes to the Binhai Lake course at this week’s Volvo China Open in Tianjin.

The Englishman won the tournament in 2006 in Shenzen and still has the golden jacket to prove it. Now he’s hoping to add another one to his collection.

Casey said. “It would be very nice to have a closet full of those when I end my career.

“Winning is a special thing and I have to say that I like to win tournaments that carry a jacket. Obviously everyone wants the green one, but it is a cool prize to win here and I like playing in China.”

Casey endured a frustrating start to the season after a dislocated shoulder suffered while snowboarding kept him out until March, but he believes he is getting back to something like his best.

The 34-year-old said: “Sitting around on the couch has brought the passion back and now I just have to put in a lot of hard work to get back to the required standard. The ball-striking is good, but I just don’t have the consistency yet.”

Ian Poulter and Peter Hanson will both be in action two weeks after securing top-10 finishes at the Masters, and also in the field will be Guangzhou teenager Guan Tian-lang. At 13 years and 173 days old, Guan will make history as the youngest player ever to appear in a European Tour event, beating the record of Lo Shik-kai, who was 13 years and 280 days old when he played in the 2003 Hong Kong Open.

Guan thought he had missed out when he finished agonisingly short of his top-three target in the mid-China qualifying event in Hangzhou three weeks ago, but winner Wu Kang-chun was exempt, lifting Guan into the qualification spots.

He said: “I really couldn’t be happier — I’m so excited right now. I was really disappointed to lose out in the play-off and I thought I’d blown a great chance to make history, but then to find out I’m actually going to play is like a dream come true. My goal now is to be the youngest player ever to make the cut in a European Tour event, and I think if I can shoot level par or better I’ll have a good chance to do that.”

Guan began playing golf at the age of four and became world champion for his age group in San Diego last year, winning by 11 shots.

Guan will tee off in a group also containing Oliver Fisher and Marcus Fraser, while Poulter and Hanson have been paired together alongside Francesco Molinari and Casey joins Simon Dyson and Nicolas Colsaerts.