LIV Golf’s Paul Casey was very quickly shut down by a reporter after his comment about the golf crowd in the UK being ‘starved for golf’ in 2024.
LIV Golf’s Paul Casey was shut down by a reporter following his comment that ‘the golf crowd in the UK is starved for golf’ in 2024.
Casey, 47, was speaking to the media ahead of this week’s LIV Golf UK at JCB Golf & Country Club.
The Englishman, who represents Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC on LIV Golf, told a pool of reporters on site there were ‘six or seven pro events on various tours in the UK’ when he turned professional in 2000.
Twenty four years later, Casey considers ‘there’s a lot fewer than that’.
But are there really?
Golf Digest’s director of digital content Jamie Kennedy has done the math and come to the conclusion it’s now nearly double that in 2024.
When pressed to give his verdict on the state of pro golf events in the United Kingdom right now, LIV Golf pro Casey replied:
“When I first started playing there was six or seven professional events on various Tours in the UK and now there’s a lot fewer than that.”
Incorrect.
There are in fact 15 pro golf events in the UK across ‘various Tours’.
- Scottish Open (PGA/DPWT)
- The Open (PGA/DPWT)
- British Masters (DPWT)
- BMW PGA (DPWT)
- Dunhill Links (DPWT)
- Irish Open (DPWT)
- Women’s Scottish Open (LPGA/LET)
- Women’s Open (LPGA/LET)
- Aramco Series London (LET)
- NI Open (Challenge)
- Scottish Challenge (Challenge)
- Paul Lawrie Match Play (Legends)
- Seniors PGA (Legends)
- Senior Open (Champions)
- LIV Golf UK (LIV)
Here was Kennedy’s shut down:
Paul Casey in his LIV presser today….
“The golf crowd in the UK is starved for golf. When I started playing there was 6 or 7 professional events on various Tours in the UK and now there’s a lot fewer than that.”
[Quick Google search later…]
Professional golf events in the… pic.twitter.com/X4NFVm0Be0
— Jamie Kennedy (@jamierkennedy) July 25, 2024
Sporting Life Editor Ben Coley then followed in off the back of Kennedy’s tweet with a burn of his own.
Coley alluded to the simple fact that Casey decided to skip the UK’s biggest regular event on the DP World Tour – the BMW PGA at Wentworth – for six years from 2014 through to 2021.
Casey, a 15-time winner on the DP World Tour, won the BMW PGA in 2009.
Paul Casey skipped Wentworth in…
2014
2015
2016
2017
2020
2021
Worried about these ‘starved’ UK fans now he is paid and contractually obliged to be there; less worried when he had a say in the matter. https://t.co/6fytsXCMEM
— Ben Coley (@BenColeyGolf) July 25, 2024
Casey has enjoyed a fairly solid season on LIV Golf in 2024 with four top-10 finishes in 10 events heading into this week’s LIV Golf UK event at JCB in Rochester.
He came closest to landing his maiden LIV Golf title earlier this season.
That came when he was agonisingly defeated by Abraham Ancer in a three-man playoff at LIV Golf Hong Kong in March.
Casey finished T5 in Las Vegas in February and he had a pair of consecutive T9s in Houston and Nashville last month.
The Englishman missed out on all the majors this season.
In fact Casey has now not played in a major championship since the 2022 Open.
That’s because he has tumbled down the world golf rankings to a current 681th.
He was once ranked third in the world
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