For the second straight day at the WGC-Dell Match Play, Paul Casey has conceded to his opponent.
On Wednesday at Austin Country Club, the Englishman won his first hole against Corey Conners. However, Casey hit two balls into the hazard on the second hole and soon withdrew from the match, citing injury. Casey’s agent told Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan that Casey was experiencing back spasms. He did not withdraw from the event though, hoping his back would improve to play his scheduled matches on Thursday and Friday.
Instead, Casey did not show up to the first tee Thursday morning against opponent Alex Noren. Noren went ahead and hit his opening tee shot to make the concession official.
At the time of writing, Casey has not announced if he intends to play Friday’s match against Louis Oosthuizen, but even with a win Casey would not be able to advance to weekend play. Given his injury, and with the Masters two weeks away, it would appear unlikely Casey would give it a go.
Casey was in contention at the Players Championship two weeks ago, ultimately finishing third at the weather-wrecked event at TPC Sawgrass. He was a pre-tournament WD from last week’s Valspar Championship—a tournament that accounts for two of his three career PGA Tour wins—but that was chalked up to the toll of contending at the Players rather than an injury-related decision.
Casey has an exceptionally solid record at the WGC-Dell Match Play, reaching the Sweet 16 seven times in his last 11 starts here and finishing runner-up twice.
With the concession Noren moves to 2-0 in the round-robin group stage. Noren is scheduled to face Conners on Friday.
