Casey breaks through at Houston Open
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 Shell Houston Open | Round Four | 06 Apr 2009
England’s Paul Casey has survived a one hole playoff with J.B. Holmes to win his first PGA event at the Shell Houston Open, converting his six way share of the third round lead into victory.
Like so many in the field, Casey was forced to return to the course early on Sunday morning to complete round three and did so with a 69 to lead with Colt Knost, Fred Couples, Bo Van Pelt, Geoff Ogilvy and Ryan Moore.
All but Couples and Casey fell away early in their final round and by the turn that pair appeared to have established a break. Couples went ahead when he birdied the 10th to move to 12 under but a long way ahead on the golf course was Holmes who had started his round nearly two hours earlier.
Due to the delays in play and the subsequent carry over from one day to the next, the pairings for round three were the same for round four. Holmes made such significant progress in rounds three and four that he finished his tournament at 11 under and one behind Couples when the then leader still had eight holes to play.
With the course playing particularly difficult, especially over its closing holes, Holmes’ score looked a very good chance to hold up and so it would prove. Casey moved into a share of the lead when he birdied the 12th and 13th holes before Couples’ brave bid for his first victory in six years began to unfold with three consecutive bogeys to finish.
Casey was left alone in the lead at 12 under with the final few holes to play and managed to safely negotiate all until he stood on the par four 18th with a one shot lead. The demanding final hole was always going to be a tough ask on day four especially facing the prospect of a first PGA Tour win. Casey’s tee shot found the fairway but his approach finished in the right hand trap and when he failed to get up and down he was tied with Holmes at 11 under.
The playoff was over almost before it started when Holmes found the water left with his tee shot. Despite landing in the fairway trap with his tee shot, Casey was just short with his approach and pitched to 20 feet. He was able to safely two putt and it was all over after Holmes could mange no better than double bogey.
Fred Couples eventually finished in a share of third with Henrik Stenson and Nick O’Hern who made up massive ground with rounds of 66 and 70 to finish his tournament. O’Hern only just made the cut but playing from the 10th tee in today’s final round he flew under the radar to finish third and complete a very encouraging tournament in just his 6th event back from surgery.
O’Hern led the Australians with Geoff Ogilvy slipping with a final round of 75 to finish in a share of 6th but it was still an encouraging lead up to this week’s Masters where the Victorian is expected to start as one of the pre-tournament favourites.
Jarrod Lyle, Stuart Appleby and John Senden finished 31st with Senden’s four dropped shots in the final four holes proving very costly. Marc Leishman was 42nd, Peter Lonard, 52nd, Steve Elkington 58th, James Nitties, Tim Wilkinson and Greg Norman 70th.
Norman was impressive prior to this final round of 81 and along with six other Australians now heads to the US Masters at Augusta National.
