Q. Tough way to end the week which has been such a great week.
PAUL CASEY: Yeah, that's -- I think that's -- this is my first Olympics, so I think that's the one thing I witnessed a lot this week is there's triumph and there's the heart ache and we have seen it in the village we have soon it in Team GB. Now you've soon it here on the golf course as well. So I mean, first of all, what a day to play the final group in the Olympics with Hideki and then Xander gold medalist in Japan. Brilliant. For me that was one of the coolest rounds to be a part of. Sure, I wish I could have got my driver working a bit better and I struggled, but I battled and I'm so very proud of how hard I worked and tried to squeeze as much out of my game as I possibly could. Would love to have brought a medal home, not just for myself but for Team GB, would have been the ultimate. But the whole week has been phenomenal. I've made friends, can't say enough good things about my experience this week.
Q. Give us a sense of the mentality when you walk off the 18th and you're in a group of six guys, that's sort of quite difficult to sort of think about.
PAUL CASEY: We play playoffs, I've had multiple playoffs in my career.
Q. Ever been in one that big?
PAUL CASEY: No, not been in one that big, but for me it's like a three-man playoff standing there with Rory, Hideki and myself, just worry about your own golf, that's what you got to do. Again, I didn't hit the tee shot I wanted to and made bogey and I'm out. Yeah. It's so sort of finite the Olympics sort of experience, isn't it. That's something you got to get used to as golfers and it's, to be honest, it's quite sort of -- it's amazing but it's also quite humbling.
Q. Some of the experience, really, very different staying in the village and competing for those three spots, it's all a bit different.
PAUL CASEY: It is. The village life is amazing. I'm not sure I could do it every week. It's so different from what we experience. But Team GB they are amazing. We have got this entire building in the village, they have got a performance lodge down the road, the heart and soul and energy and time that goes into providing the athletes with the best opportunities to accomplish their dreams and perform at their best and hopefully bring home medals sometimes happens, sometimes doesn't. I'm amazed at it. This week if anything it's sort of, it's kind of like reignited my sort of passion to sort of work even harder. It's watching, for me it's like watching guys like the rugby 7's guys and girls, their funding gets pulled and then they end up here and then they're missing out on medals and that's just like heart break. And then watching the guys sort of bring gold home. So you get the full range of emotions, which is quite something. You would love it to be sort of different and change, get a medal for certain people, because you feel like they deserve it, but that's, again that's the way the Olympics is.
Q. You've probably been one of the most consistent players for quite awhile now. You must be very encouraged. You're there or thereabouts almost every time?
PAUL CASEY: Yes, I don't dwell on it too much, I don't put any more pressure on myself. I always put enough pressure on my self anyway to perform at the highest level I possibly can. But for me it's like this is -- I'm disappointed I didn't win a medal, but I take so much away, so much positive sort of, such a positive experience from the whole week away. For me that's the win.
Q. What would you like to say to the golfers who passed on the opportunity to compete at the games and do you think that golf as an Olympic sport is here to stay after Brazil and Tokyo?
PAUL CASEY: I think you can see the passion that everybody's had this week and everybody that's participated this week. I think if you ask them should golf remain it's a hundred percent yes. The golfers that passed on it, I've got no words for them, all I would say is that I think representing your country is the greatest thing can you do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports