World's Greatest Approach Player: Paul Casey

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It's not often that a player leads a percentage category on the ultra-competitive PGA TOUR by nearly a full percentage point. In one of the TOUR's most important categories, birdie or better percentage from the fairway, Paul Casey enjoys such a lead on the world's best players.

Casey has converted 27.27 percentage of birdie chances from the fairway on TOUR so far this year. The next closest? That would be some guy named Phil Mickelson at 26.54 percent.

How has that translated to Casey's TOUR season? Very well, thank you very much. Casey has posted three top-five finishes in 11 starts this season, most notably a second-place finish in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship where he became the third player to reach the Championship final in consecutive years, joining Tiger Woods (2003, 2004) and Geoff Ogilvy (2006, 2007). He son his first four matches by 5-and-4 margins before returning Sunday morning to defeat Camilo Villegas in a darkness-delayed semifinal, eventually winning at the 24th hole, the longest match of the week, before losing in the final to fellow Englishman Ian Poulter.

Last month, Casey finished third behind winner Louis Oosthuizen at the British Open with three consecutive rounds in the 60s at the ego killer that is the Old Course at St. Andrews.

"I'm very hungry for major success," Casey said. "That's the one thing that I haven't achieved yet that I want to achieve. And you know, I don't sit back and -- I don't get complacent. I don't sit back and go, OK, I'm Top 10 in the world and I've won this and done that and made some nice money. I mean it's not about that to me. It's about titles."