Jason Day and Lucas Herbert undefeated at $30m World Match Play in Texas

There’s a strong Masters buzz brewing around Jason Day as his resurgence continues, and he’s got Tiger Woods’ words ringing in his ears.

Jason Day is two from two. Picture: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images

Jason Day is doing what Tiger Woods told him to and the results are showing after collecting a second-straight win at the $30m World Match Play to continue his return to the top.

The 34-year-old was joined by fellow Aussie Lucas Herbert as undefeated players in Austin, Texas, with Herbert needing to top his group and make the quarter-finals to book a Masters berth.

Herbert took down world No.16 Tyrrell Hatton with back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th holes having being behind or tied for the entire contest.

Cam Davis got on the board after a day one loss, but Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee both lost their contests to also take a 1-1 record into their third and final pool matches.

Day, who has jumped to world No.37 this year having battled for the past 24 months, said he was learning to “trust” his swing changes even when things weren’t going well, which is what Woods told him to do.

“It‘s difficult because you can see the end result and you know where the end result … I shouldn’t say end result. You know where you’re heading towards because you’re always constantly open to learning and slowly changing as time progresses,” Day said after defeating Frenchman Victor Perez.

Our 2016 champion is 2-0. 👀 pic.twitter.com/dOsNg8QjER

— WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (@DellMatchPlay) March 23, 2023

“But it‘s difficult because you’ve just got to trust your hand.

“I remember talking to Tiger about it all the time. Like, how did you make the changes? He goes, ‘I just trusted my hands out there’, even though he changed his swing.”

Day said he felt like an “amateur” in his second match compared with his day one birdie blitz and was back riding the daily ups and downs.

“Just because I had eight birdies, played flawless golf, didn‘t get myself in trouble at all, and then today I was just like very unprofessional in the way that my process was,” he said.

What could’ve been… pic.twitter.com/wYCeC0QcKL

— WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (@DellMatchPlay) March 23, 2023

“I think match play is one of those events where you‘ve just got to keep yourself in it constantly and just hang around, hang around, hang around.

“And then if you have a good short game, if you’re a good putter, then you can have a good day like yesterday or you have a day like today and you’re just grinding it out and kind of grind out a win.”

Originally published as Jason Day and Lucas Herbert undefeated at $30m World Match Play in Texas