Casey’s Cup snub beyond belief

IN ALL the years I’ve been writing about golf I’m struggling to think of anything so incomprehensible as Paul Casey’s decision to forgo playing in the Ryder Cup next year. As Justin Rose says, he would have been a certainty to make the team on current form. The official reason, that family life in Arizona is such an overwhelming priority it comes before committing to play in just four European Tour events to make himself eligible, is bad enough. Rose’s suspicion, that it has more to do with Casey (below) bearing a grievance after being overlooked for a wild card in 2010, when he was ranked in the world’s top 10, is even worse. How can you go through life holding a grudge for that long? Or not have the ambition to play in the Ryder Cup when it’s been made so easy for you in terms of schedule? From a PR point of view, it’s a disaster. Three years ago Casey was the chief agitator when it came to arguing for more tour events in England. Now, four events on the whole of the European Tour is apparently too much. Imagine how that’s going to look to the average golf fan? When Sportsmail broke the story in September that Casey was thinking of sitting out the match, most players thought he would backtrack, and particularly given the changes to tour membership that were in the pipeline. The tour themselves were convinced last week they’d done enough to persuade him to rejoin. Instead, it’s fair to say feelings are running high among the Ryder Cup regulars due to his intransigence, and maybe best summed up by the thoughts of one I asked for a comment on Sunday. ‘Derek, if you carry on this line of questioning you’ll only get me to say something I’ll later regret and then I’ll want to crucify you when we next meet,’ he

remarked.