T.J.'s Take: History not on Casey's side at Augusta

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Will Paul Casey get another victory hug at Augusta? It could happen, but it's unlikely.

The odds are against him, but Shell Houston Open winner Paul Casey has the chance to do something this week at Augusta National that's only been done six other times in the history of the game: win a major the week after winning on the PGA TOUR.

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Only Tiger Woods (2007 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship), Phil Mickelson (2006 BellSouth Classic and Masters), Sandy Lyle (1988 Greater Greensboro Open and Masters), Lee Trevino (1971 Canadian Open and British Open), Art Wall (1959 Azalea Open and Masters) and Ralph Guldahl (1939 Greater Greensboro Open and Masters) have been able to accomplish the feat.

If you wanna be picky, it's actually happened on 10 occasions -- Sam Snead (1949 Greater Greensboro Open and Masters), Ben Hogan (1946 Winnipeg Open and PGA Championship), Byron Nelson (1945 Chicago Victory Open and PGA Championship) and Henry Picard (1939 Scranton Open and PGA Championship) also turned the trick, however there was no tournament scheduled the week after the initial win and the major win came in the next scheduled event.

Bottom line here: It's difficult to do and doesn't happen often, despite the fact that it's happened twice in the last three years.

So what makes it so hard to win a major the week after winning on TOUR? If anything, you might think that momentum is on the player's side. However, winning a golf tournament on any level -- particularly the PGA TOUR -- could very well be one of the most underrated accomplishments in sports.

Players are spent after winning a TOUR event. It's a grind over the course of 72 holes, experiencing highs and lows and trying all the while to stay balanced and focused. It's not nine innings of baseball, or 60 minutes of football.

That's why it's not surprising to see the names Woods, Mickelson, Trevino, Hogan and Nelson among the group. It takes a special, special individual to muster up that kind of fortitude for two consecutive weeks.

There have been plenty of players to win in back-to-back weeks on TOUR, but making one of those wins a major -- as you can see -- is a completely different animal.

Another reason you might not see it as often as you would think is because typically the big-name players, the ones you think most capable of pulling it off, don't always tee it up the week before a major.

There's been a shift in that in recent years for a couple of reasons. No. 1 is the Shell Houston Open. In an effort to attract a stronger field, organizers have set the conditions at Redstone to nearly mirror those of Augusta National.

What's better preparation than nearly the real thing? Ultra-fast greens, blazing fairways and short rough is what brought 15 of the top-20 ranked players in the world, including Casey, to Houston last week.

The same type of dynamic also applies to the PGA Championship, which comes a week after the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. The top players tee it up against one another for a rare two consecutive weeks.

What works best? To play the week before, or not to play the week before? It depends on the player. For the most part, Tiger likes to rest the week before.

For fellow major champions like Mickelson and Padraig Harrington, well, they prefer to play and get in a competitive mode.

Here's a look at what happened with players who won the week before a major in 2008 and how they fared at the major:

• Johnson Wagner earned his first TOUR win at the Shell Houston Open and followed it up with a tie for 36th at the Masters the next week.

•Justin Leonard won the St. Jude Classic and then had a tie for 36th in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

• Kenny Perry earned his third win of the 2008 season at the John Deere Classic and opted to skip the British Open because of a prior commitment to play at the U.S. Bank Championship, where he tied for sixth.

• Finally, Vijay Singh won the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone and then missed the cut at Oakland Hills in the PGA Championship.

A mixed bag to be sure.

Needless to say, Casey's chances of pulling off an unlikely double this week at the Masters are slim at best. However, he could still be a dangerous player to watch.

While he's never won a major -- or a TOUR event until Sunday -- Casey's name always comes up as a player to watch. He's especially tough at Augusta National with three top-11 finishes in four starts.

Whether it happens this week or not, you can be sure that Casey has never entered a major with more confidence.

But if history is good for anything, confidence might not mean a whole lot.

T.J. Auclair is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.