Casey: I got away with it

Paul Casey considered himself fortunate to escape with a narrow victory against dogged American Shaun Micheel at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

Micheel missed 10-foot birdie chances at the final two holes as Casey eked out a two-up victory in demanding conditions at Dove Mountain.

It was a rematch of last year’s final at the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth, and although Casey won again, this time it was considerably more difficult.

“It was a very tough match,” said Casey. “I got off to a great start, played very solid golf to begin with and found myself three-up early, which was a bit of a surprise.

“And then the tide turned. I made a couple of mistakes and all of a sudden found myself square. So it was a battle all the way down to the last, and I find myself very fortunate that he missed his birdie putts on 17 and 18. I’m very lucky to get away with that.”

Next up for Casey in the quarter-finals is defending champion Geoff Ogilvy. Although Casey and Australian Ogilvy were born on opposite sides of the globe, they live only seven miles apart in Scottsdale, Arizona, and are even members of the same club.

“We’ve been doing dinner together all week, so maybe I’ll have dinner with him tonight and put something in it,” Casey joked.

“It’s going to be a tough, tough match. He’s higher in the world ranking, the US Open champion, but I relish the challenge.

“It’s nice playing friends because you get to chat walking down the fairways, but when push comes to shove we’re going to be grinding it out and wanting to beat each other as badly as possible.”

Ogilvy said: “Paul won there (at Wentworth) last year so he’s obviously running on a bit of confidence.”