AUGUSTA — Paul Casey withdrew from the Masters on Thursday, just 2½ hours before his 1:30 p.m. tee time.
Casey withdrew to injury, according to the Masters news bulletin. He had been dealing with a back issue the last several weeks. However, he’d played two practice rounds at Augusta National and participated in the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday along with his wife and children.
This would have been Casey’s 16th Masters. He played in each of the last seven. His best finish was a tie for fourth in 2016 and he finished sixth in 2017, his third straight top 10. He led after the first round in 2020, only to end up 38th, and tied for 26th last year.
Casey injured his back sometime after The Players Championship, in which he contended and finished third on March 13. He conceded his first-round match to Corey Conners due to back spasms after just two holes on March 23 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. He played in just two other events this season, finishing 15th in the Genesis Invitational and 25th in the CJ Cup.
Another standing ovation
Hideki Matsuyama got another standing ovation at the Masters.
The defending champion, from Japan, was so honored at the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night after an estimated three-minute speech – all done in English.
Jack Nicklaus said Matsuyama spoke without notes in his last duty as champion this week and was “terrific.”
“After Hideki finished his speech, I could tell – I was watching him before sitting in the middle between Ben Crenshaw and Chairman (Fred) Ridley, and he was sitting there with his eyes (straight ahead) and his hands were moving, and I could tell he was very nervous. He made the speech. He didn’t miss a beat. He didn’t miss a word.
“After the speech was over, he goes, ‘Whew,’ like that. Simultaneously everybody got up to give him a standing ovation, a standing O, because we really appreciated the effort that he put in to go through minutes in English when he had a hard time doing it.”
There were 31 of the 34 living former champions at the dinner, according to a photo released by Augusta National. The 1956 Masters champion Jackie Burke, who is 99 years old, did not attend. Three-time winner Phil Mickelson did not attend the tournament or activities this year. Also, 2009 winner Angel Cabrera is serving a prison term in Argentina.
Nicklaus said he thought the Champions Dinner was the best ever, including the food. Tom Watson said Nicklaus captivated the dinner by recollecting every back-nine shot on his way to victory in 1986 at age 46.
- Chip Towers and Chris Vivlamore contributed to this report.
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