Profile / Bill Elliott / 20 May 2009 / Leave a comment

Bill Elliott caught up with Paul Casey ahead of the BMW PGA Championship and found a player revitalised and at the peak of his game.

Kicks up the backside come in all shapes and sizes. For Paul Casey, his came in the middle of last summer when, looking up from counting his money, he suddenly spotted that his world ranking had dropped and that he was now towards the worryingly blunt end of the all important top 50.

Membership of this elite club is essential in today's pro golf world. Top 50 players make it to the four majors, the World Golf Championship events and pretty much anything else their ambitious little hearts desire. Meanwhile, players outside the top 50 live a different and fretful life, forever peering through the glass at the party going on inside.

"Once you're in the top 50 it's a nice, little comforting sort of area, a real comfort zone, " he says.

"So it's a real wake-up call when you find yourself suddenly near the edge of it. It certainly affected me and the biggest way it affected me was that I worked incredibly hard. On what? Oh, all the usual good, solid stuff...ball-striking, fitness, mental game.I don't think there has been anything radical happening here, maybe just the work ethic's been harder."

What is also true is that it has worked spectacularly. Casey is now the highest ranked Brit at seventh, one spot ahead of Padraig Harrington and, after victories this year in Abu Dhabi and Houston is seems obvious that the only way for this 31-year-old Englishman is up.

"I hope you're right, " he grinned as he practised at Wentworth this week.

"Certainly the self-belief is much better and that is a huge step forward for anyone in this game. The wins this year have helped that obviously but, you know what, the biggest step forward for me came after I lost to Geoff Ogilvy in the final of the World Championship Matchplay in Tucson.

"It was my best chance of winning a PGA Tour title when I made that final. All I had to do was to beat one guy but Geoff played great golf and he flat-out beat me, it was as simple as that.

"But I didn't walk away from there feeling like I lost an opportunity really. I knew that a win would come as long as I played a bit better golf or even continued to do what I was doing. That week in the desert gave me the confirmation I needed that I was working on the right things and that I was making progress."

Since then Casey believes he has played the best, most consistent golf of a career that is now studded with 10 big international wins. He always was the bloke to watch after a stellar amateur career at the University of Arizona but for a time a couple of years ago it seemed that all the obvious potential to move from good to terrific was drifting sadly away.

Not now it doesn't. Casey is back, more mature, more accomplished and clearly more focused than before. Only time will tell if this likeable chap from Weybridge has indeed got what it takes to move up into the most rarified of atmosphere but as summer finally begins to stroke this island the signs are very, very positive.

Somebody asked him yesterday who he would choose to watch in the BMW PGA Championship is he was here as a punter. The answer was swift, to the point and reassuring. "Actually, I think I'd watch me, " he smiled. He is not wrong...