Casey holds off fiery Fisher to claim PGA Championship at Wentworth
Published on: 24th May, 2009
Casey holds off fiery Fisher to claim PGA Championship at Wentworth | Related News
Not since the glory days of Nick Faldo has English golf enjoyed an afternoon like this. Amid wonderful scenes that bettered anything even Wentworth has staged in recent times, Paul Casey held off a ferocious challenge from fellow countryman Ross Fisher to win the BMW PGA Championship and become the first Englishman in 13 years to enter the giddy territory of the world’s top three.
Nothing seems beyond Casey when he plays like this, but my, how he had to play like a top-three golfer to hold off the challenge of Fisher. Fancy being in contention going into the final round, shooting 64, the lowest round of the week – and still not winning. As Fisher said afterwards: ‘I really couldn’t have done anything more.’
Who’s writing these European scripts? One week after Shane Lowry’s fairytale win in the Irish Open we had two players from round these parts turning Europe’s flagship event into the local lads’ championship.
On the one hand Casey, a product of a golf scholarship at nearby Foxhills; on the other Fisher, who came through a similar scheme at Wentworth. What pride the members of both clubs must have felt as this pair turned in play of scarcely imaginable quality. Fisher’s consolation as he heads an hour away to the London Club to defend his European Open title this week is that this was confirmation that he now belongs in the upper echelon of European golf.
Two years ago he led this tournament going into the final round, only to collapse completely and subside to an embarrassing 84. Here, with a 20-shot improvement, he came back and showed exactly what he has learned.
But this was Casey’s day. When it was over he looked down the impressive list of winners of the trophy. ‘I remember coming here in the late Eighties to watch Woosie and Faldo winning, watching from outside the ropes as the ball whistled past my head,’ he said. ‘Now I’m sitting here with my name on the trophy and it is going to take some time for that fact to sink in. But it’s a wonderful feeling.’
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