Paul Casey continues revival in Singapore

 
8 November 2012

Paul Casey's end-of-season revival continued with a first-round 68 in the Barclays Singapore Open at Sentosa today.

While world number one Rory McIlroy waited to begin his bid for a fifth win of the year, Casey tucked in two behind early pacesetter Thomas Bjorn.

A dislocated shoulder suffered snowboarding last Christmas forced the former world number three to miss the first two months of the season and on his return he crashed out of the world's top 100 by making only one halfway cut in nearly six months.

But Casey's last three finishes have been third, fifth and sixth and the 35-year-old had five more birdies this morning, including one on the 452-yard ninth to complete his round.

Danish star Bjorn, three times a winner last year, birdied three of his last six holes to open a one-stroke lead over Casey's fellow Englishman Simon Khan, Spaniard Pablo Martin and Thai golfer Chinnarat Phadungsil.

The feature group of the morning was Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Padraig Harrington, but none of them sparkled.

Scott, seeking a fourth victory in the event, did best with a level-par 71, mixing three birdies with three bogeys.

Mickelson, joint runner-up behind Ian Poulter at the season's last world championship in China last week, shot 73 and Harrington 74.

The American set off with a birdie on the 10th, but double-bogeyed the short 14th, dropped more shots at the next two and could birdie only the 444-yard sixth after that.

Harrington, buoyed by a victory at the four-man Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda three weeks ago, did not have a single birdie all day, ending a run of 12 successive pars with a seven on the long fourth and finishing with a bogey.

McIlroy, having already clinched the PGA Tour money list, is in sight of clinching the European Tour crown too and after an opening bogey he birdied the fourth and fifth.

Casey said: "I'm very happy with that - it's the first time I've played in this kind of humidity for a while.

"Just hanging on to the club with sweaty hands is the biggest problem.

"The golf has been very nice lately and I would love to sneak in a win before the end of the year. This is a difficult set-up - I don't think there's a wedge or sand-wedge into any of the par fours and there's a lot of thick rough. It's pretty much a ball-striker's paradise."

Bjorn said: "I thought the course would be extremely difficult and my iron play was not 100 per cent, but I hit enough good ones and never got into big trouble.

"Any time you can find some shadow you do it. You don't do too much practice and you pace yourself - it's a long, long week and you've got to stay energised."

Khan would have shared top spot but for a closing bogey six.

"I think the heat by that point had got to me," said the 2010 BMW PGA champion, "but it's a little bit of mind over matter - you've just got to get on with it and I've learnt over the years what to do."

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