Paul Casey withdraws from second match because of back spasms

AUSTIN, Texas – It only took a few swings for Paul Casey to realize it wasn’t going to be his day.

After conceding his first-day match to Corey Conners with back spasms, the Englishman had just started his warm-up when he pulled the plug on his Day 2 match against Alex Noren in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

“I wanted to play today but it hurt. I was tender on the putting green and then started to feel it on the chipping green and then couldn’t get past a 9-iron [in his warm-up],” Casey said. “I’m not going to injure it any more. It’s just a muscular thing that just hurts.”

Matches and scoring from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship

Casey said he spent more than an hour in the physio trailer early Thursday getting treatment and applying KT Tape to his lower back, but his back quickly began to spasm, which the trainers told him was because his “glutes were switched off.”

“I’ve probably had this about four or five times the last 20 years, so it’s not an injury. It could just be fatigue, maybe back from The Players with the cold weather and travelling,” he said.

Now comes the surreal part for Casey. Because of the round-robin format used for the WGC-Match Play, he can still play his Friday match against Louis Oosthuizen. Although there’s no chance for him to advance to the knockout rounds, there are still FedExCup points and money to play for.

“I don’t know. I can’t go through [to the weekend] so I guess it’s like, what’s the point?” Casey said when asked about playing Friday. “I hate to just give a guy a match and that would be Louis tomorrow, but I guess it makes it even, doesn’t it? I gave one to [Corey Conners], about to give one to Alex [Noren].”