England’s Paul Casey is hoping to go one better at this week’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, having finished runner-up in the event for the past two years.
The World Number Six was edged out in the Final by Australian Geoff Ogilvy in 2009 and by his compatriot Ian Poulter last year, but is hoping to strike it third time lucky at the Ritz-Carlton GC in Dove Mountain, America.
The 33 year old faces another Australian, fellow European Tour Member Richard Green, in the first round of the $8.5million event, which gets underway on Wednesday.
Commenting on his superb record in the event, Casey said: “I think I’ve always been a player who’s been fairly aggressive on the golf course, makes a lot of birdies and then occasionally will throw in the odd mistake. I did that even last week [at the Northern Trust Open] – I made a triple bogey on the 10th on Saturday, when my ball got it stuck in a palm tree.
“You cannot get away with that in a stroke play event, whereas match play’s not quite as penal. You maybe lose the hole, but it doesn’t kill your chance of winning the tournament. So in match play, I think I can get away with the mistakes I occasionally make on the golf course.
“I also think I’ve had a very good approach mentally to playing match play. I always feel that if you keep the ball in play, and you’re very consistent and you put a lot of pressure on the other guy, it’s very difficult to play against. I tend to play the golf course, not the player.
“But by doing that and by making lots of birdies and being aggressive and knowing what you’ve got to do on putts, I seem to do well and make a lot of putts. And it’s actually an attitude that I’ve been trying to carry over to a lot of my stroke play events.”
In contrast to Casey’s impressive record in the event, reigning US Open Champion Graeme McDowell has sometimes struggled to make an impression, making it past the first round just once in four previous attempts. But the Ulsterman is determined to put that right in Arizona this week.
He said: “I haven’t exactly displayed my match play prowess so far in this golf tournament, so I’m very keen to get here this year and try and change that.
“I think back to the last two years, and I’ve played okay. I feel like my first round matches the last two years, against Zach Johnson in 2009 and Luke Donald last year, I played well enough to win. I just ran into guys who played better than me. But that’s the nature of this golf tournament. And sometimes you can play badly and win your first round match, and sometimes you can play pretty well and get beaten.
“I’m very keen to get here this week and try and win a couple of games. And I think it’s one of those weeks where if you can get a little momentum going, you can go far. Mathematically it’s probably the easiest golf tournament you will ever win because you only need to beat six guys, but it doesn’t work out like that. You’ve got 64 great players here this week all trying to do their job, so it’s very much about who you play on the day. And 18 hole match play can be quite the battle.”
McDowell’s compatriot Rory McIlroy faces American Jonathan Byrd, who is enjoying a fine season having won twice on the US PGA Tour, including the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
McIlroy said: “I think he’s won two tournaments in his last ten starts, so he’s obviously playing pretty well. I watched a bit of the tournament in Hawaii at the start of the year, and he played very well there.
“So obviously he had a good run and is going to be tough to beat, but you're never going to get easy matches this week. He’ll be a very tough opponent, and I’ll have to play my best or somewhere near my best to beat him.”
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