10 March 2024 , 17:04
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Paul Casey sang the praises of his Crushers GC captain Bryson DeChambeau following their team victory in Hong Kong- even after the American opted to skip their post-tournament press conference.
Casey came agonisingly close to winning the individual title on Sunday, losing out to Abraham Ancer in a three-man playoff after shooting 13-under-par across the week. Whilst he failed to get over the line individually, his impressive performance did come with some reward, as he steered the Crushers to another team victory.
On the back of their win in Hong Kong, Casey was left with no option but to do his team's press conference alone, with DeChambeau, Charles Howell III and Anibran Lahiri all absent, which the Englishman could only apologise for.
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"Summing up the week for the team, so proud of my team. My team is awesome. Even though they're not here; they've all deserted me. I make my apologies for my team. Charles Howell has got a flight I think about 7:30 and so does Nicky's caddie, but I've got no idea where Bryson is. He's got no excuses."
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Despite DeChambeau's no-show, Casey could not speak highly enough of his captain, who appears to have embraced the role and team element of the competition better than anyone else on the LIV circuit, something that could well have been use to Zach Johnson's Ryder Cup team last Autumn, after he opted to leave DeChambeau out of his 12-man setup that ventured to Rome.
"Well, what a great group of guys. We've got something -- we spoke briefly about it after Jeddah, that we've got something that you can't measure, and I firmly believe that," he added. "I've had some experience with team golf. Bryson has been a bloody good captain.
Paul Casey impressed on day three in Hong Kong (Getty Images)"And I think part of being a good captain is letting guys do what they do best in order to -- go do what you need to do in order to play the best golf. He doesn't necessarily try to control us. You get what you get. We've had some great results. Jeddah was obviously a shock.
"That was out of left field, the guys shooting 20-under par on Sunday was ridiculous. But even today. I don't think we were even on the leaderboard with nine holes to go. So proud of them." Casey put in one of his best LIV Golf performances to date during Sunday's final round at Hong Kong Golf Club.
The former PGA Tour star made six birdies across his 18 holes to card his bogey-free six-under 64, in wet conditions in Hong Kong. The highlight no doubt came with his very final shot of the final round, as Casey holed out for birdie from the bunker at the par-four 16th to get himself into the three-man playoff alongside Ancer and Cam Smith.
Remarkably at the time, Casey did not realise just how important his chip-in from the sand was in terms of the leaderboard. "I actually didn't know the scores," he claimed. "I knew it was close. It wasn't until I holed it and looked at the leaderboard and realized where I was. But it was still -- in fact, the week was great, but the round of golf today, maybe one of the best rounds of golf I've played in six months or a year."