AUGUSTA, Ga. – Growing up as a kid at Foxhills Gold Club in London, Paul Casey used to drive the ball in the trees and when he watched Seve Ballesteros rescue pars with his wizardry from similar circumstances, he became a devotee for life.

“I didn’t know what he did blazing a trail to America to give guys like me this opportunity, but there was something about his charisma and flamboyance,” said Casey, who once bought Ballesteros’s Rolex watch at a charity auction.

Forty years after Ballesteros won his first green jacket, Casey produced a round that would have made the Spaniard proud, making an eagle and five birdies en route to shooting 7-under 65 and a two-stroke lead when play was suspended due to darkness during the first round of the 84th Masters.

“You rarely walk off this golf course going, it could have been two or three better, but it kind of felt that way,” he said. “I don’t want to be greedy. I’m very, very happy with my 65.”

Indeed, he should. Casey, making his 14th start at the Masters and 66th start in a major, tied his lowest score at Augusta National. The 43-year-old Englishman has demonstrated a comfort level here with five top-10 finishes, but last year was a rare exception. He opened with an 81. His 16-stroke improvement on Thursday set a Masters record from the first round from one year to the next. What was the difference?

MASTERS: Leaderboard | How to watch

“I have no idea,” he said. “I played some decent golf in 2019 overall, just not the first round of the Masters. I don’t know why it was rubbish. It wasn’t any extra glass of red wine or anything like that.”

With the exception of his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship in August, Casey has struggled with his game and complained of a lack of energy playing in fan-less settings. He’s been one of the most vocal players that he didn’t enjoy playing golf during a global pandemic. But the Masters is the one tournament that he says, “I walk on the tee and I feel special.” So, what about a November Masters without patrons?

“It still has a buzz to it. There’s an energy and a little bit of a vibe. Yes, it’s clearly a lot less than what we are used to, but there’s something about this place,” he said. “I felt excited to be here.”

As for his game, it has benefited from a two-week crash-course with his longtime instructor Peter Kostis, who he hadn’t seen during the summer.

“He was up in Maine, and I was in Arizona, and we didn’t cross paths. We tried to do a lot of work remotely, which wasn’t massively productive,” he said. “The last two weeks, I spent a lot of time actually on tempo. Tempo, big turn, tried to hit the ball maybe a little bit harder than normal, and that was really it.”

Kostis looked at Casey’s swing and said, “You’re hitting it poorly because you’re trying not to make mistakes, you’re trying not to make errors. I need you to make a bigger turn and smash it like you normally do.”

“I was like, ‘Are we chasing distance here?’” Casey said.

That may be a bonus of better posture and turn. Casey posted a few swings on Instagram of drives where his ball speed spiked as high as 190 miles per hour. Could he finally be in line for his major moment? The key for Casey will be to back up his first round with another good one. Casey has won 14 times on the European Tour and three times on the PGA Tour, so he’s surely capable of going the distance, but in the eight previous times he’s held the first-round lead he’s never broken 70 the next round.

For one day, at least, Casey played like a major champion, and perhaps he can play the rest of the week like his childhood hero, Ballesteros.