Royal foiled as Casey toils

By Norman Dabell

SOUTHPORT (Reuters) - Britain's Paul Casey recruited royalty to help find a lost ball during Saturday's wind-affected British Open third round ... to no avail.

Casey hit out of bounds on the first hole to get his day off to a bad start in the gale-force winds that swept Royal Birkdale before losing his ball off the tee at the long 15th.

Britain's Prince Andrew, a keen golf fan and a former captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, tried to locate it but all efforts failed as the Ryder Cup player ran up a double-bogey seven.

"I got to where the spotter was and where we thought the ball was but we couldn't find it," Casey told reporters.

"The Duke of York was there and he said he'd hit a ball in there the other day. I said, "Did you find it sir?,' and he said "no".

"Clearly I'd hit it in the wrong place. We don't know whether it was in the bushes or the rough, a bit frustrating.".

Casey finished with a 73 for a 12-over total of 222.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)