Paul good despite his record miss
BY NEIL McLEMAN PAUL CASEY was on course to smash the Augusta scoring record until two late bogeys stalled his charge.
Taking advantage of generous pins on the final day, he blazed to nine under for his first 15 holes, including playing the three holes in Amen Corner in four under.
Starting at No.11, world No.13 Casey went birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie to jump onto the leaderboard.
But the US-based Brit found a greenside bunker on 17 and could not make the 13-foot par save.
And faced with a 68-foot birdie putt on the last for a 63, he charged his ball 16 feet past the hole and missed the return for a seven-under 65.
It is still his best ever score in a Major and Casey said: “That was fun, wasn’t it? Birdie, birdie eagle on Amen Corner, I’ll remember that for a long time.
“I’m obviously disappointed. I got out of position horribly on 17 and 18 which was kind of reminiscent of how I played this week.
“I haven’t been very good until that streak today. But to shoot 65 today, it would have been hard to turn that down. And it was fun thinking... I was fully aware of what was going on.
“I pulled the tee shot on 16 but wanted to sneak one here because that’s always a gimme pin.
“If you get that tee shot right and feed it around, I know 63 is the course record and 62 is the lowest ever in a Major.
“So I was aware. Not particularly nervous, just kind of having a good time and I obviously didn’t do it but it was fun.”
Nick Price (1986) and Greg Norman (1996) are the only two men to shoot 63 at Augusta while six men have carded 64 in the last round.