Aussies drawn in pool face-off
THE Australians at this week’s World Golf Championship Match Play event – defending champion Jason Day and in-form Marc Leishman – have been drawn to face off in the same pool.
Only one player from each group of four advances to the weekend’s round of 16 at Austin Country Club in Texas.
Day, 29, is top seed in group 3, which also includes Leishman, England’s Lee Westwood and American Pat Perez.
In the round-robin format starting early tomorrow, Queensland’s world No.3 Day will play Perez in the first round while Leishman faces veteran Westwood.
Two-time WGC Matchplay winner Day and Leishman, fresh from his Arnold Palmer Invitational win, will square off early on Saturday.
“Any draw is a tough draw, but match play is a completely different ball game,” said Day, who beat South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen in the final in 2016.
Fresh off winning his first US PGA Tour title in five years in Florida on Monday, Victorian Leishman said it was unfortunate to be paired with the only other Australian in the field.
“Jason is a great player and good friend but regardless of who you play, you want to win,” he said.
Leishman, 33, will draw confidence from a strong record in Presidents Cup match play singles – he beat Jordan Spieth in 2015 and Matt Kuchar in 2013.
“I love match play; I played quite a bit of it growing up and at the Presidents Cup Sunday singles matches,” he said.
“But that’s in the past and I’ll have to play solid golf to beat top players like Jason, Pat (Perez) and Lee (Westwood).”
In the other big group match-ups, world No.1 Dustin Johnson faces fellow major winners in Jimmy Walker, Martin Kaymer and Webb Simpson.
Texan native and world No.6 Jordan Spieth is up against fellow American Ryan Moore as well as Japanese duo Yuta Ikeda and Hideto Tanihara.
World No.2 Rory McIlroy, winner of the 2015 match play, is grouped with Argentine Emiliano Grillo, Gary Woodland and Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen.