American idol: Day thrilled to play with Woods By Ryan Ballengee Nov 8, 2011 4:23 PM ET On Thursday, world No. 7 Jason Day will be grouped with Tiger Woods for the first time in his career. The Aussie is looking forward to the experience for the opening two rounds of the Australian Open. “He has influenced my life a lot. I have always wanted to play against him. It is going to be fun when we have that chance to play against each other,” Day said Tuesday at The Lakes in Sydney. “It is going to be very friendly but obviously we want to beat each other.” Day believes Woods’ game is improving, but will get a front row seat to see for himself come Thursday. “Tiger is Tiger Woods. You don’t go and win (71) PGA Tour events and 14 majors without being a great player and having that intimidation factor. I’m pretty sure it is still there,” he said. The runner-up in the year’s first two majors, however, does not believe he will be intimidated by Woods in their first grouping together. Day knows this Woods is different than the one he idolized. “I am not going to put my game up against Tiger’s. If I was playing against him 10 years ago he would have smacked me very easily,” he said. With the influx of players into the field because of next week’s Australian Open, Day said he has plenty of others players to worry about besides the world No. 58. “It feels like a very strong PGA Tour field with the amount of international players who are over here. It would be good to win but right now all I can do is control what I can control,” he said.