Disappointed Casey still up for links golf

Paul Casey found himself in last place in the British Open at Hoylake today, but insisted he would relish the chance to play more links golf.

Casey carded a final-round 77 to lie 10 over par and last of the 71 players who made the cut.

The 29-year-old skipped last week’s Scottish Open at Loch Lomond to work on his game and practise at Hoylake and would like to see more European Tour events played on links courses.

“I’ve always thought it would be nice to play links golf in the couple of weeks leading up to it, but it’s tough now. It’s all about sponsors and money,” he said.

“Loch Lomond is a fantastic event, and Lyle Anderson (the owner of Loch Lomond) does own a links course at Dundonald. But is it a place to hold a tour event? It might not be big enough in terms of the infrastructure.

“I’m sure if we were playing a couple of links events guys would really love that. You would get a lot of the American players coming over and playing, I’m sure.

“But it’s unfortunately not for the players to set the schedule and pick the courses.”

Casey had not finished outside the top 30 in any tournament in Europe or America since February before this week and admits he is at a loss to explain his performance.

“I really struggled with the swing. I didn’t have control of the golf ball this week and if you don’t have that round somewhere around here you’re not going to get away with it,” said the Ryder Cup star.

“Every week is tough, but it exaggerates mistakes when you turn up to a major, especially an Open Championship.

“If this was a US Open I’d just be in the rough all the time and chipping out sideways. Here it’s slightly more complex and you end up in trickier positions, I find.”