Round 2: Frys.com Open

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

SAN MARTIN, Calif. — Paul Casey came into this week needing a good performance to climb back inside the top 125 on the money list to secure his TOUR card for next year. Getting healthy, however, is a bigger priority he admitted.

Since May, Casey has been battling a right foot injury — most of that time he’s had a plate in his shoe and his toes were taped up. After a visit to Gary Gray and Dave Tiberio at the Gray Institute, though, Casey says he’s feeling about 70 percent.

“Going back a few weeks ago, I don’t know where I would have put it,” said Casey, who, in layman’s terms, couldn’t turn his foot correctly because of the injury.

He’s getting better, however, and it showed on Friday in the form of a 64 to take the lead at 8 under halfway through the Frys.com Open. That, by the way, comes on the heels of a victory in last week’s Shinhan Donghae Open in Korea, which in and of itself doesn’t mean a whole lot other than the jet lag Casey was fighting due to a 16-hour time difference.

“It’s the first time I’ve been on the golf course since making progress with the foot and the toes, and it was night and day,” Casey said. “Suddenly a little bit of confidence, the ball-striking is coming back.”

The result Friday? Eleven of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation. Not to mention just 26 putts, including a couple of birdies from long distance.

“It’s nice to look up and know that the golf ball is actually going in the direction that I wanted it to go in,” Casey said. “which hasn’t happened in a really long time.”