Casey cheering on Poulter at Barclays tournament

By Larry Fine

PARAMUS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Paul Casey shot an opening 66 at the Barclays Classic on Thursday and is rooting for fellow-Briton Ian Poulter to join him on the leaderboard at the opening event of the FedExCup playoff series.

Casey has given up hope of claiming an automatic berth in the European Ryder Cup team on points and figures his chances of being named as a captain's pick by Nick Faldo would improve if Poulter did well here and qualified on the world points list.

British Open runner-up Poulter is 12th on the combined Cup table. The top 10 earn automatic berths.

"Everybody is talking about the sort of notable players, the guys who have played Ryder Cup before who are not on the team," Casey told reporters about the competition to be one of Faldo's two picks to complete the 12-man squad.

"Ian is one, Monty (Colin Montgomerie) is another and Darren Clarke. They have to be my rivals when it comes to a pick.

"So all I can do is play exceptionally good golf here, put myself on the radar in terms of what Nick is thinking, and if he doesn't have to pick Ian, then there's more chance that I might get picked. So I hope Ian plays well."

Casey was in second place after his five-under-par round at Ridgewood Country Club, four shots behind American Hunter Mahan.

Poulter, however, struggled in with a two-over-par 73.