Golf Roundup: Casey's comeback on hold again

Paul Casey of England, whose season has been derailed by a right shoulder injury sustained in a snowboarding accident in January, withdrew last week from the Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin Golf Club in Spain.

Casey played for the fifth time this season at the Players Championship but withdrew when the shoulder injury flared up after he shot 6-over-par 42 on the front nine in the opening round at TPC Sawgrass.

In his other events, he tied for 51st in the WGC-Cadillac Championship and missed the cut in the Transitions Championship, the Shell Houston Open and the Masters.

"Unfortunately, despite having had intensive treatment since last Thursday, I have been advised not to play," said Casey, once No. 3 in the World Golf Rankings. "I am absolutely gutted as it is one of my favorite events and I was really looking forward to a week of match play to kick-start my season. I am very sorry to miss out.

"The problem is I basically haven't stopped since the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral in the first week of March. I rehabbed it so quickly, too quickly. I've basically only got myself to blame."

Casey is considered one of the better match players in the world, having won the tournament in 2006 by trouncing Shaun Micheel, 10-8, in the final at Wentworth, outside London.

Since the tournament moved to Spain, Casey tied for 13th in 2009 and tied for 17th last year.

Casey also has four top-10 finishes in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, having lost in finals to Geoff Ogilvy in 2009 and Ian Poulter in 2010.

Robert Karlsson took Casey's spot in the 24-man field.

--The LPGA Tour, which has 113 players with Twitter accounts, is making a move that will make it easier for fans to follow their favorites.

Beginning with the Wegmans LPGA Championship at Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., next month, LPGA caddies will be sporting bibs with their player's Twitter handle on their backs.

The LPGA announced the plan as "The LPGA @CaddieBib Program."

"We feel that our players are some of the most accessible and fan friendly in all of professional sports," Kraig Kann, the LPGA Tour's chief communications officer, said in a statement.

"They are our biggest ambassadors and understand the value of 'connection.' We think this idea will add to our fan experience and create more interest in our tour by showcasing the players as people."

When the plan was announced at youth clinic last week at Locust Hill, one of the young participants donned a bib with @YaniTseng on the back, as the world's No. 1 player looked on with a big smile.

Paula Creamer's Twitter handle, @ThePCreamer, will be featured on her caddie's bib.

Wegmans Food Markets' three-year contract as title sponsor runs out after this year's tournament, but the two sides plan to sit down later in June or early July to work on a new deal.

--Patrick Reed has no playing status on the PGA Tour this season, but last week he qualified for his fourth event of the year, the HP Byron Nelson Championship, on the circuit by shooting 8-under-par 64 in Monday qualifying at Lantana Golf Club in Lantana, Texas.

Previously, the 21-year-old Reed was granted a sponsor's exemption into the Valero Texas Open and made it into the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the Wells Fargo Championship through Monday qualifying.

Reed is 3-for-3 on Mondays this season, and he's done it with the help of his fiancee and caddie, Justine Karain.

"We're basically running on adrenaline," Reed, who helped Augusta State capture the NCAA Division I National Championship in 2010 and 2011, told The Augusta Chronicle. "We're pretty tired.

"Actually, I'm not really getting to practice a lot after and before rounds here, trying to conserve energy, because we've been running with our heads cut off for the past month."

Karain is not simply along for the ride.

When Reed was facing a 12-foot birdie putt to make the cut on the final hole in the second round at New Orleans, he was having trouble with the read and so he trusted what she saw.

"She's amazing at reading greens," said Reed, who captured the 2006 Junior British Open. "I couldn't really see the line and the next thing you know I was able to play the weekend.

" ... She's so positive with the whole thing. If I hit a couple bad shots, I'll start to get down on myself and she'll pick me right up immediately and won't allow me to self-sabotage my round or any hole."

Reed made the cut in each of his first three tournaments, tying for 35th at the Valero Texas Open, tying for 24th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and tying for 32nd at the Wells Fargo Championship, earning a total of $116,205.

However, he ran out of magic and shot 69-75--144 to miss the cut by two strokes in the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

--Somerset County Crime Stoppers Inc. is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for the theft of two artifacts last week from the United States Golf Association Museum in Bernards Township, N.J.

The items stolen were the U.S. Amateur trophy used from 1926-1992 and a replica of the Hickok Belt awarded to Ben Hogan in 1953, when he captured five of the six tournaments he entered.

Thieves smashed a window and grabbed the items as the alarm sounded and were gone by the time police arrived on the scene minutes later.

"These historical artifacts are an important part of our collection, and their loss is a great disappointment to us," said Joe Goode, USGA communications director.

" ... We don't talk about our security measures and protocols. Our system did operate as designed and the theft could have been a lot worse, otherwise."

The Hickok Belt award, given annually in the middle of the 20th century to the top athlete in the country, was acquired from the Hogan estate in 1998 and has been displayed in the USGA museum since 1999.

Goode said Hogan's Hickok Belt actually is a replica of the original that was stolen in a theft at Colonial Country Club outside Dallas several years ago.

Winners of the U.S. Amateur in the 1926-1992 timeframe included Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet, Gene Littler, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lanny Wadkins, Craig Stadler, Jerry Pate, Mark O'Meara, John Cook, Hal Sutton, Scott Verplank, Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard.

Anyone having information regarding the theft can call the Somerset County Crime Stoppers' Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477) or go online to www.888577tips.org or www.scpo.net and click on either "Crime Stoppers" or "TIPS HOTLINE." All calls are confidential.

--The Czech Open, scheduled for August, has become the third European Tour event to be canceled this season because of a lack of funding, organizers said last week.

The European Tour made no announcement, but on the schedule page at the organization's website, the dates that were reserved for the Czech Open, Aug. 16-19, were listed as an open week.

The Czech Open was first played in 1994, when Per-Ulrik Johanssen claimed the title. Bernhard Langer of Germany won in 1997, but the event was not held again until 2009.

The tournament was staged for the last three years at Prosper Golf Resort in the eastern Czech town of Celadna.

"While he has regional support for the tournament to go ahead, he doesn't have national government support," Keith Waters, the European Tour's director of international policy, said of Stanislav Pros, who owns the resort.

"The last conversation I have with him and his team was that they didn't have the money to stage the tournament this year, and one can easily understand that in these tough economic times."

Organizers said they hope the tournament will return to the European Tour schedule next season.

Oliver Fisher of England won the Czech Open last year for his first European Tour victory.

The other events canceled this season both had been played in Spain: the Majorca Open and the Castellon Masters, which was won last year by Sergio Garcia on his home course.