Golf Roundup: Casey trying to come back from shoulder injury

Paul Casey of England, who has had several false starts to his season because of a dislocated right shoulder, made his latest comeback last week in the BMW International Open at Cologne, Germany.

Casey hopes to play well enough to earn enough points to make the European Ryder Cup for the matches in September at Medinah, or at least be one of Jose Maria Olazabal's captain's picks.

"It was tough having to sit at home watching the U.S. Open on TV when you really want to be playing," said Casey, who was injured when he fell while snowboarding in January.

"But doctors said my shoulder needed another week's rest. I've been having the shoulder massaged, but it's meant also having to cut down my practice sessions."

The U.S. Open was only the third major Casey has missed since playing his first one at the Open Championship in 2002 at Muirfield.

Casey entered last week at 60th in the World Golf Rankings and was 30th on the European Ryder Cup points table. He was a member of the winning Euro teams in 2004 and 2006 and on the losing side in 2008 but controversially was not picked by captain Colin Montgomerie in 2010.

"This will only be my sixth tour event this year, so in many ways this week really now is the start of my season," Casey said before the BMW International. "The shoulder injury has meant a lot of time away from the game, but I'm coming back firmly believing that if I can get going I can still qualify and make the European Team.

"It's going to be a case of winning golf tournaments and that's all I will focus on, and I refuse to focus on the alternative."

Casey has missed the cut in three of his four events on the PGA Tour this season, making the weekend only when he tied for 51st in the WGC-Cadillac Championship. He also withdrew before the start of the Players Championship.

The comeback got off to a rocky start as Casey shot 76-74--150 to miss the cut by seven strokes.

--Patrick Cantlay, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, gave up his last two years at UCLA when he turned pro last week before the Travelers Championship.

The 20-year-old Cantlay, from Los Alamitos, Calif., shot a course-record 10-under-par 60 at TPC River Highlands, the lowest score by an amateur in PGA Tour history, last year in the second round of the Travelers.

"I realized for the first time that if I played really well, I could compete on any stage," said Cantlay, who finished in a tie for 24th in the tournament, one of the four top 25s he recorded in eight starts on the PGA Tour as an amateur.

"(The decision) was a combination of being comfortable with being a professional and taking it to the next level."

Cantlay, who also will play in the next two weeks at the AT&T National and the Greenbrier Classic, can earn a special temporary membership if he earns $411,943 this season. That would allow him to accept unlimited sponsor exemptions the remainder of this year.

If he finished in the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list, he would earn his PGA Tour card for next season. That's what rookie Bud Cauley did after leaving Alabama last year.

Or, he could win a tournament and earn a two-year exemption.

Since 1980, the only players to qualify for the PGA Tour right out of college were Gary Hallberg, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods, Ryan Moore and Cauley.

Cantlay signed with agent Mark Steinberg of Excel Sports Management, who also represents Woods and Matt Kuchar.

Coming off a tie for 41st in the U.S. Open, Cantlay obviously felt some pressure in his first event as a pro, shooting 75-67--152 to miss the cut by three strokes.

It was only the second time he missed the cut in nine PGA Tour events.

--Bubba Watson's magical mystery tour since winning the Masters continued when he threw out the first pitch last week before a game between the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles at Citi Field in New York.

Watson, who was in the area to play in the Travelers Championship at Cromwell, Conn., showed some skill from 14 years of pitching as a youngster when he threw an impressive pitch from the rubber to catcher Mike Nickeas of the Mets.

"I threw hard (as a kid) but mostly threw junk," said Watson, who is a good friend of Orioles manager Buck Showalter and also met Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver before taking the mound.

" ... I'd love to hit one off the lights here. 'The Natural' was one of the best baseball movies of all time, and watching the lights explode, that'd be fun."

Watson threw out the first pitch at a minor league game in Pensacola, Fla., right after his victory at Augusta National in April.

--Graeme McDowell's game seems to be made-to-order for the U.S. Open, based on his victory at Pebble Beach in 2010 and his tie for second at the Olympic Club earlier this month.

Two weeks before heading to San Francisco, G-Mac got the jump on his fellow competitors when he visited Merion Golf Club in Haverford Township, Pa., to get a look at next year's venue for the second major of the year.

"You're ready to hold the tournament right now," McDowell told club officials.

Well, many of the logistical problems still must be worked out. The United States Golf Association is bringing its premier event to a course where the crowds and the merchandise tents will be much smaller because of space limitations.

The USGA is calling it a "Boutique Open."

"One thing has always been our guiding principle," said Reg Jones, the USGA's managing director of the U.S. Open. "We want to host our championships at the best golf courses so we can crown a national champion. Everyone feels like Merion certainly is one of those places."

This will be the fifth time Merion has been host to the U.S. Open. In previous Opens there, the winners were Olin Dutra in 1934, Ben Hogan in 1950, Lee Trevino in 1971 and David Graham of Australia in 1981.

Bobby Jones captured the U.S. Amateur at Merion in 1930 to complete the Grand Slam, scoring an 8-and-7 victory over Eugene Homans in the 36-hole, match-play final.

Earlier in the year, Jones captured the U.S. Open, the Open Championship and the British Amateur.

The East Course at Merion played to only 6,528 yards in 1971 and 1981, making it the shortest U.S. Open venue since World War II, but it has been lengthened to a little more than 6,900, still not long by today's standards.

"I don't think you're going to find Merion being a piece of cake," Jack Nicklaus said when he visited the course recently. "I think Merion will be a pretty good test."

Hogan won at Merion with a score of 7 over par while Graham finished with a score of 7 under, and you can be sure the USGA is going to set up the course so that doesn't happen again.

--The Principal Financial Group has signed a new three-year agreement with the Champions Tour, through 2015, to be the title sponsor of the Principal Charity Classic presented by Wells Fargo in Des Moines, Iowa.

However, the tournament will not be played again at Glen Oaks Country Club in West Des Moines, where Jay Haas claimed the title for the third time in the six-year history of the event earlier this month.

A new venue in the Des Moines area will be found.

From 2007 to 2011, the Principal Charity Classic, the only Champions Tour event in Iowa, has distributed more than $3 million for local children's charities, funding efforts that have benefited thousands of children in Central Iowa.

The 2012 total is still being tabulated.

--Joe Ogilvie, a PGA Tour member since 1999, withdrew from the Travelers Championship before the second round Friday because of a back injury and might miss the rest of the season.

Ogilvie went to the hospital for an MRI exam after opening with a 4-over-par 74 at TPC River Highlands, and the results revealed a herniated disk.

"May have played my last round on the PGA Tour for 2012," Ogilvie said in a note on Twitter. "Stupid on my part for playing hurt since Houston, but thought it was just age."

If Ogilvie is unable to play for the remainder of the year, he would be eligible for a major medical exemption for next season.

Slowed by a wrist injury last year, Ogilvie had missed the cut in three consecutive events and four of his last five this season and failed to reach the weekend in eight of his 16 tournaments.

His only PGA Tour victory came in the 2007 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

--Jose Manuel Lara of Spain was disqualified from the BMW International Open last week in Cologne, Germany, after his caddie attempted to hide having an extra club in the bag during the first round.

Caddie Mathias Vinson of Argentina realized on the second hole that he had 15 clubs in Lara's golf bag at the Gut Larcenhof Golf Club and tried to hide the extra club in some thick bushes.

Lara thought Vinson had taken the diversion for a "call of nature," but his playing partners, Damien McGrane and Peter Hedblom, became suspicious. Vinson admitted to Lara that there had been 15 clubs in the bag.

"He was seen entering the bush with the bag of clubs by his playing partners, who thought it was a little bit suspicious," said John Paramor, chief referee of the European Tour.

"They went and asked the chap, 'What are you doing?' and he sort of fumbled out an answer saying, 'I've got this wrong. I've done something bad. I wish it hadn't happened, etc., etc.' It was clear the club was out of the bag and in the bush at the time. He admitted it straightaway and regretted his action."

Paramor told Lara that he was disqualified from the tournament because a player is responsible for his caddie's actions. Vinson was banned from caddying "indefinitely," the European Tour said in a statement released Friday.

Lara was not penalized beyond the disqualification.

"The penalty of disqualification was imposed ... with Paramor and tournament director David Williams believing a serious attempt to circumvent the rules was made by the caddie," the European Tour's statement read.

"Following an interview with Jose Manuel Lara, it was established that he had no prior knowledge of the 15th club in his bag, or the attempt to dispose of the 15th club."

Vinson said he had been caught in a traffic jam on his way to the course from his hotel, jogging the final three kilometers to ensure he made it in time before Lara teed off.

In his haste, he failed to noticed Lara had 15 clubs in his bag.