Casey pins hopes on fitness drive

Paul Casey has pinpointed the need to improve his fitness as he bids to climb out of the worst slump of his career.

The Ryder Cup star goes into the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles tomorrow having missed his last six halfway cuts and with his world ranking - 29th at the start of the year – now 70th.

“I’m not fit enough,” said Casey today. “My back just gets tight. I’ve had problems after long haul flights and I do not look after it as I should.

“There’s nothing out of place, nothing that will cause a long-term problem, but it’s needs to be fixed and it’s a case of me fixing it – stretches and things.”

The last time the 28-year-old survived to the weekend of a tournament was the Asian Open in China at the end of April and his nightmare run since then includes quitting the US Open after an opening 85.

“The low was actually two weeks before at Wentworth – that’s where I really struggled with the golf game,” he added.

“The US Open was a combination of health and confidence. Although it looked horrible on paper it didn’t hurt as much as Wentworth. Mentally I knew there was nothing much I could do at the US Open and I was advised to withdraw by the physio.

“Since then it has steadily got better, building back the confidence.”

And he would have survived the cut in Germany two weeks ago but for the fact bad weather meant only the top 50 went through rather than the usual 70.

Casey has had to try to put behind him the controversy of his anti-US comments following the Ryder Cup and has been working with American psychologist Don Green.

“My problem at the moment is just getting some results going and getting that confidence going. When it does, which it could do pretty soon, the rest of the year could be pretty good,” he added.

“I’m excited about the start of the Ryder Cup points (next month) and maybe the start of the 2006 season is what I need to make a fresh start.

“Not that I have written off this year by any means. This is the first of six in a row and there are a lot of good things to look forward to.”

Casey’s first professional win in 2001 came on the same Gleneagles Centenary course where this week’s event takes place.