Casey chasing double glory

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May 23, 2009

Paul Casey is on course to become the first golfer in a decade to complete a double in top European tournaments at Wentworth.

Paul Casey is on course to become the first golfer in a decade to complete a double in top European tournaments at Wentworth.
Not since Colin Montgomerie in 1999 has any player won both the BMW PGA Championship and the World Matchplay title at the Surrey venue.
But Casey, who won the Matchplay in 2006 with a record 10 and eight winning margin over Shaun Micheel, goes into tomorrow’s final round of this year’s PGA Championship with a three-shot lead over Dane Soren Kjeldsen.
Montgomerie, earlier in the day, looked likely to be one of the players who would chase him all the way but he faded badly at the end of his third-round 69, posting three bogeys in four holes on the back nine.
Casey, who has already won on the European Tour in Abu Dhabi earlier this year and recently recorded his first US PGA Tour victory in the Houston Open, will move to third in the world behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson should he win the £750,000 first prize tomorrow.
And he is playing with huge confidence.
“I am hitting the golf ball where I want to,” said Casey, who would have led by five had he not missed two short birdie putts on the last two par fives.
“It’s nice that all the hard work I have put in this year with my coach is starting to pay off.
“And if I could win and move up to third in the world rankings that would be great. It’s one thing I have been focusing on a lot this year – trying to accumulate as many ranking points as possible – and with 64 of them available this week it’s a big prize.”
Kjeldsen is also a man in top form having recently won the Andalusian Open and climbed to 45 in the world rankings.
He completed a third-round 68 with a magnificent birdie at the 18th, playing an awkward bunker shot and then sinking a 25-foot birdie putt.
A shot further back from the Dane is young Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, who if he should triumph at the age of 20 years and 20 days would be the youngest ever PGA Championship title winner.
McIlroy shot a seven-under-par 65 to move to nine under and afterwards revealed he had curbed his natural aggression to work his way into contention.
“I just tried to put the ball on the fairways and not be too aggressive off the tee,” he said. “I do like to get the ball as close to the green as possible off the tee.
“But there are some times when you can’t do it.”
Should McIlroy succeed in adding to his debut tour victory at the Dubai Desert Classic in January he will move into the world’s top 10 when the latest world rankings are published on Monday morning.
All the third round scores & totals in the European Tour BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth GC, Surrey, England.
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
203 Paul Casey 69 67 67
206 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 69 68
207 Rory McIlroy 72 70 65
208 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 72 68, Ross Fisher 68 73 67
209 Marc Warren 72 66 71, Stephen Dodd 71 68 70, Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 71 68
210 Anthony Wall 67 71 72
211 Colin Montgomerie 69 73 69, Nick Dougherty 73 71 67, Simon Dyson 74 69 68
212 Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 71 72, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 70 74, David Horsey 67 71 74, Ben Curtis (USA) 69 70 73, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 70 70
213 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 67 74, Anders Hansen (Den) 72 70 71, Paul Lawrie 72 71 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 71 73, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 73 67 73, Paul Broadhurst 73 72 68
214 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 71 74 69, Graeme McDowell 75 71 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 73 70 71, Robert Rock 71 74 69, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 74 71 69, Richard Green (Aus) 72 74 68, Jamie Donaldson 70 71 73, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 70 72 72, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 67 77 70, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 73 70
215 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 69 74 72, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 77 68 70, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 72 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 68 74 73, Tano Goya (Arg) 74 71 70, Mark Foster 72 70 73, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 74 70
216 Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 73 72, Lee Slattery 70 72 74, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 74 71 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 73 73 70, Paul Waring 75 71 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 73 70, Markus Brier (Aut) 70 74 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 70 75 71, Miles Tunnicliff 73 70 73
217 Benn Barham 72 73 72, Scott Drummond 69 74 74, Luke Donald 74 72 71, Pablo Martin (Spa) 72 73 72
218 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 70 74, David Howell 76 69 73, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 69 77, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 70 75, Sam Little 71 73 74, Simon Wakefield 75 69 74
219 Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 74 74, Andres Romero (Arg) 71 72 76, Darren Clarke 74 71 74, Peter O’Malley (Aus) 74 72 73
220 Robert Dinwiddie 73 73 74, Alastair Forsyth 70 75 75
221 John Daly (USA) 73 71 77, Anthony Kang (USA) 69 76 76, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 70 76 75, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 71 73 77, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 75 75, Johan Edfors (Swe) 74 72 75
222 Anton Haig (Rsa) 72 69 81, Phillip Archer 72 74 76, Seve Benson 73 72 77, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 76 76
224 Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 73 78, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 73 78
229 Barry Lane 68 78 83