World No. 2 Jason Day is ready to renew his rivalry with Paul Casey at the WGC-Dell Match Play, after refusing to concede putts in 2011.
Australian Day caused a stir on his match play debut five years ago when he refused to concede an 18-inch putt to Casey, which angered the two-time runner-up.
Day — who took out last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational — will lock horns with the Englishman again at this week's tournament in Austin, starting Thursday, and the eight-time PGA Tour winner is braced for the rematch.
"I feel like everyone gets upset at me when they play match play against me. I don't give away too many putts. I think over time I have become a lot softer in my match play," said Day, who will open his account against Graeme McDowell and Thongchai Jaidee in Group 2.
'Death stare'
"Last time I didn't give [Paul] Casey a one-foot putt and he got angry at me - well I could tell that he was angry because he gave me a death stare from across the putting green, so what that ended up doing, I think I won the next couple of holes and closed him out which was great," Day said.
"And obviously people talk about certain tricks here and there, I just assume that I'm going out and holing every single putt and putting in every single putt - don't assume that you're going to go in there and people are going to give you a foot putt because if it's in the rules where you don't have to give them a putt then you don't have to.
Casey, a tough opponent
"I'm assuming that I'm going out there and holing every single putt, and then I'm not going to be surprised by someone going 'okay you have to putt that', you know what I mean? It's going to be fun playing against Paul because he's had four top-five finishes in match play. This format brings out the best in him, and he's going to be a very tough opponent. There's nothing like competing against good players in tough formats.
"When you're out there you're fighting and you're trying to compete against each other and as long as you both know that you're there to compete, then after the tournament it's done. Even if they beat me, I'm fine with it because if someone goes out there and plays better than you, or vice versa, whatever it is, you're going to know that they were just probably better than you on that day.
"There was never anything like that between me and Paul - maybe a little bit with Russell Henley - I kind of peeved him off and he was the wrong person to peeve off because he actually came back and nearly beat me in one of the matches. Once again, you have just got to watch who - because some guys play better when they're angry."
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