Casey to focus on here and now

Paul Casey learned a painful lesson last week and does not plan to make the same mistake in the future – starting with the NEC world championship first round in Ohio tomorrow.

In sight of the Ryder Cup début he has set his heart on, the 27-year-old from Surrey triple-bogeyed the final hole of the US PGA championship in Wisconsin and missed the halfway cut by one.

There were some extenuating circumstances. Having found trouble off the tee and then taken two to get out of a greenside bunker, Casey faced a four-footer to stay alive, but waited 15 minutes before missing it.

That was because on the adjoining 18th green – he was playing the ninth - Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and John Daly were completing their second rounds and the crowd were reacting to them rather than paying attention to Casey’s problems.

“It was difficult out there,” he said. “Yes, I hit two or three bad shots, but in any other situation, without all the noise, I think I would have been fine.

“Put it this way, if I played that hole 99 more times I don’t think I’d have another seven.

“But I also think I was guilty of thinking about the Ryder Cup too much. I focused on the wrong thing.”