Casey birdied the first hole of a play-off with fellow Englishman Oliver Wilson to claim the £126,000 first prize at Shenzhen Golf Club.

The Ryder Cup star, who won a play-off to win the TCL Classic in China in March, set the clubhouse target on 13 under par after a superb closing 65, but thought his missed birdie putt on the 18th would prove costly.

That looked like being the case when Wilson birdied four holes in a row from the 12th to lead by one with just two holes to play.

But the 25-year-old from Mansfield bogeyed the 17th as he went for the birdie he thought he needed, and also failed to birdie the par-five 18th after running through the green with his approach.

The players returned to the 18th for sudden death and Casey two-putted from 25ft for birdie after Wilson stumbled from one greenside bunker into another to card a bogey six.

"I'm very happy, I feel I've accomplished what I came here to do but it wasn't easy," said Casey, who felt his chance of victory was gone after trailing by eight shots at halfway.

"The game improved as the week went on and today was a really solid round of golf. I gave myself lots of chances but I was very fortunate to get that chance at the end to go into a play-off.

"Before I went off to the range I saw Oliver had birdied three holes in a row so I really thought I might not need to warm up because I might not be needed. But it's a tricky golf course and I've made enough bogeys this week to know it's not over until it's over."

Casey was five shots behind overnight leader Ross Fisher but the world number 61 - the highest ranked player in the field - wiped out that deficit with four birdies in his first eight holes, and briefly led by two when he picked up further shots on the 11th and 12th.

Veteran Barry Lane was the first to catch him when he chipped in for birdie on the 14th, but when the 45-year-old duffed his chip on the 15th to double bogey, Wilson took over the challenge only to stumble over the closing stretch.

Lane birdied 17 and 18 to claim outright third place ahead of Fisher and Thailand's Chawalit Plaphol with Ireland's Peter Lawrie was sixth after a closing 69.

Casey's win will be major boost to his goal of finishing the year inside the world's top 50 to qualify for next year's major championships.

"I didn't know where I was in the rankings before this week but I'm sure I will be fully aware of where I am until the end of the year," added the 28-year-old, who will play in the Hong Kong Open and Australian Masters over the next fortnight.

"I'm very happy with my game and I felt very relaxed even though there was pressure to perform and be near the top of the leaderboard. I'm really looking forward to a fun 2006 season.

"I struggled for form in 2005 and teeing it up in the HSBC Champions event a fortnight ago felt like starting with a clean slate. I feel very energised about everything."

For Wilson - who was within seconds of being penalised a shot for slow play along with playing partner Fisher - it was another near miss after several top 10 finishes in his rookie season, but the former Walker Cup winner said: "I'm on track.

"My time is going to come soon. I've only been on tour for about a year. There's plenty of time and hopefully it will be soon. I actually played awful today and to be in this position when not everything was going right is good.

"I know I'm capable of doing it and this is my best finish by a long way. I thought I had it in my hands and didn't look at the leaderboards. Seventeen was really the one. If I had parred that I would have been safe but I didn't know that at the time and I was trying to make birdie."

ALL THE FINAL SCORES

*Paul Casey won the play-off at the 1st extra hole

275 *Paul Casey 71 69 70 65, Oliver Wilson 68 67 71 69

277 Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 65 67 74 71, Ross Fisher 69 68 68 72

278 Peter Lawrie 69 72 68 69

279 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 70 70 67, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 71 67 71 70, Miles Tunnicliff 68 70 70 71, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 70 71 66 72

280 Scott Strange (Aus) 73 67 70 70

281 Simon Yates 68 68 74 71, Kenneth Ferrie 70 70 70 71, Keith Horne (RSA) 74 68 68 71, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 65 70 74 72, Fredrik Widmark (Swe) 75 65 69 72, Anders Hansen (Den) 70 70 69 72, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 72 70 67 72

282 Anthony Wall 71 71 71 69, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 73 69 70 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 72 70 70, Johan Skold (Swe) 68 75 69 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 74 67 67 74

283 David Park 69 73 71 70, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 72 68 72 71, Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha) 67 73 71 72, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 73 70 68 72

284 Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 72 71 71 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 69 75 70 70, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 74 69 70 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 73 70 69 72

285 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 69 74 69, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 68 71 76 70, Scott Drummond 73 70 70 72, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 72 70 70 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 69 70 70 76

286 Wen Teh Lu (Tai) 73 69 76 68, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 72 71 73 70, Ter-Chang Wang (Tai) 71 72 73 70, Adam Blyth (Aus) 70 72 73 71, Ariel Canete (Arg) 73 70 71 72, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 76 68 70 72, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 73 71 69 73

287 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 72 72 74 69, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 73 70 74 70, Adam Groom (Aus) 70 71 74 72, Ron Won (USA) 74 68 71 74, Clay Devers (USA) 71 72 70 74, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 72 69 71 75

288 Nick Dougherty 73 70 76 69, Sung-Man Lee (Kor) 70 73 74 71, Marc Warren 71 73 71 73, Gary Rusnak (USA) 72 72 71 73, Anthony Kang (USA) 69 72 73 74

289 Joong Kyung Mo (Kor) 71 73 74 71, Stephen Dodd 71 71 74 73, Carl Suneson (Spa) 71 73 71 74

290 Gary Murphy 71 72 77 70, Wei-Lan Lu (Tai) 74 70 75 71, Marten Olander (Swe) 72 72 73 73, Tse-Peng Chang (Tai) 69 73 74 74, Andrew Butterfield 68 72 75 75

291 Gary Emerson 74 70 75 72, Alistair Presnell (Aus) 74 70 74 73, Danny Chia (Mal) 70 72 72 77

292 Keng-Chi Lin (Tai) 70 74 71 77

293 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 69 73 74 77