England’s Paul Casey admitted it was like a light bulb had been turned on when he realised what has been the cause of his errant driving in recent weeks.
And after fully recovering from a shoulder injury caused by a snowboarding mishap his poor driving led Casey to question why he was also still playing with clubs that had been adjusted specially as a result of his shoulder injury.
“The thing that I discovered was that from my shoulder injury, I backed a lot of the shafts, especially in my driver ‘out’ in terms of flex and weight, as I wasn’t just able to generate the clubhead speed,” he said.
“Now that I’m feeling fit and strong again, and it’s only been literally in the last couple of weeks I said to myself: ‘Why on earth do I still have a 73 gram shaft in my driver and it’s not tipped two inches as I normally use?’
“I wondered why I couldn’t control it and it had been the driver that’s been holding me back the last three to six months.
Paul Casey with the 2009 Shell Houston Open victory trophy.
“It was only going back through some old equipment and in fiddling around in the closet back home I discovered that so now the shaft in my driver is an 83 gram shaft, and it’s the same in my fairway woods because the specs I had back in 2006 and 2009 were different to a week or so ago.
“All of a sudden the club is together and it’s doing what I want it to do now.
“But it was like a light bulb coming on and it’s like I’ve found that final piece of the puzzle. Also you can’t build confidence if you put two swings on a golf club and one ball goes in one direction and the second ball goes in the opposite direction.
“So I have been bashing my head against the wall dealing with that, so it was nothing to do with the driver head or anything else. It was just the wrong specs and my fault, effectively.
“I wasn’t healthy and I needed some assistance with flex and weight of shafts, and simple as that.
“So this is the first shaft (holding his driver) were it’s been tipped two inches and now I can go out there and build that confidence again knowing the golf ball is going where I want it to go. But the main thing is that I am in control of it now and that makes a world of difference.”
And Casey has spoken of his joy also in returning this week to Houston and the Shell Houston Open he won four years ago.
Casey’s win in Houston, and the first by a European, sent him to No. 6 in the world rankings but a combination of a downturn in form along with a shoulder injury, resulting from a snowboarding accident ahead of the 2012 season, sees Casey teeing up this week now ranked 136th.
“It’s lovely being back here in Houston and I’ve got great memories winning here but the nicest thing so far this week is the fans, as everyone keeps saying to me ‘welcome back’ and that’s great and play like you did in 2009’,” he said.
“That’s the bit I enjoy the most but then I’ve always got good feelings about Houston because of that result.”
And Casey delighted Houston golfers that week donating $100,000 of his $1.026m first prize cheque to the Houston Golf Association charities.
“I would love to do that again this week, and I would be very happy to do the same again,” he said smiling.
At this stage, the Shell Houston Open will be Casey’s only start this season on the PGA Tour unless he can improve his World Ranking.
However Casey began playing some good golf at the end of 2012 as evident by 5th in the Perth International and then 6th a week later in the BMW Masters in China, and followed by 10th in the Barclays Singapore Open.
