Paul Casey predicts ‘phenomenal reception’ for British LIV golfers

Paul Casey reckons Britain’s LIV golfers will receive a ‘phenomenal reception’ when they return to home soil in July.

The 45-year-old missed last year’s LIV London event, the first stop on the inaugural season of the breakaway tour but will join compatriots Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood in going for glory this time around.

The trio put their Ryder Cup futures in jeopardy when signing up for LIV Golf, but Casey does not believe the events of the past 12 months will affect how they are treated by a home crowd in Hertfordshire.

“I’m expecting a phenomenal reception,” he said. “With the global schedule we all play, we don’t play as much in the UK as we used to.

“When I started my career, we played half a dozen events a year back home and now it’s one, two or three at most, which is a shame.

“With Covid and everything else in the last few years, the fans have been starved of action and this will be a treat.

“I’ve not played Centurion before so I’m looking forward to that and it’s not just the golf, it’s the things I miss about being at home.

“Silly things – cheese, pickle, chocolate, all the little things. But you can’t get too carried away with those things, you must focus on the golf.”

Casey received an invitation to play in May’s PGA Championship, in which he had finished T2 and T4 in 2020 and 2021 respectively, only to withdraw through injury from an event won by his fellow LIV star Brooks Koepka.

He will be hoping home comforts lead to an upturn in fortunes back on the LIV Tour, in which he joins Bryson DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri as part of the Crushers’ team sat fifth ahead of July’s trip to Valderrama, which comes a week before LIV London.

That has not stopped him savouring the experience of his first full season on the LIV circuit and he could not have been better placed for one of the highlights.

“Adelaide was off the chain,” he said. “I was on the ‘Watering Hole’ [12th] for Chase [Koepka]’s hole in one.

“Of all the events I’ve played in my career, that was genuinely in the top five golf events I’ve ever played.

“It has been a whirlwind 12 months, an exciting 12 months. It’s exciting to be a part of it.”