Casey satisfied with gradual progress

Paul Casey is not ready yet to send out any sort of warning to Tiger Woods, but the mere fact that he was playing at Gleneagles today put more of a spring in his step.

The World Cup winner came to the Johnnie Walker Championship having missed his last six halfway cuts and down from 29th in the world at the start of the year to 70th.

Rounds of 71 and 73 were not exactly sparkling, but they were comfortably enough to end the run of early exits.

Casey resumed this morning six behind joint leaders Steve Webster and Mark Foster, but what was important to him was that he had 36 more holes to try to rebuild confidence.

And confidence is something he needs plenty of goin into next week’s USPGA championship on a Baltusrol course which looks set to be a fearsome test.

During his slump Casey missed the cut in the Masters, withdrew after an opening 85 in the US Open, then failed to survive the midway axe in the Open at St Andrews.

“I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I’m playing better and feeling much happier about things.” he said. “Now I’m just looking for results – before I was looking for my golf game.”

A talk with US Open champion Michael Campbell last month has played its part in turning his form around.

The New Zealander knows all about the highs and lows of life as a professional sportsman and pulled Casey aside during the JP McManus Pro-am in Ireland.

“There was nothing revolutionary in what he told me, but I stored his nice comments away,” said Casey. “This is a career, not a quick little race and, as somebody said, form is temporary, but class is permanent.

“I can’t say it’s a good thing to have a dip like I’ve had, but maybe it is. It’s made me work on the right things and it’s definitely been humbling. I’ve learnt a lot in the past year or so. There’s a lot more good to come out of this than bad.

“It’s been very, very frustrating, but I’ve never been overly-concerned that my game had disappeared and was never coming back.”

Webster is also USPGA-bound and for the 30-year-old from Warwickshire it will be not only his first major in America, but his first tournament there.

At the Italian Open in May he had his first European tour victory in 247 starts going back 10 years and he stands 24th on this season’s Order of Merit - 66 places ahead of Casey.

Foster, whose only tour win came in South Africa two years ago, is down in 122nd place and needs to climb seven spots to avoid a return to the qualifying school.

He and Webster resumed one ahead of fellow Englishman Sam Little and France’s Gregory Bourdy, two tour rookies who stand 121st and 140th on the money list respectively.

Following the injury withdrawals of Colin Montgomerie and David Howell, Australian Richard Green, 50th in the world, is the highest-ranked player left in the tournament.

But he had to wait until after 7pm last night to discover he had squeezed into the final two rounds at four over.

Open runner-up Montgomerie (bruised fingers), Howell (abdominal muscle) and Scot Stephen Gallacher (back) are all battling to be fit for Baltusrol.