ENGLAND'S Paul Casey is just one win away from the £1million jackpot after knocking Colin Montgomerie out of the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth yesterday.
With the scalps of major winners Retief Goosen and Mike Weir already tucked away the 29-year-old continued his brilliant debut in the event with a six-and-five victory over his Ryder Cup teammate . . . and possible partner . . . in the semi-finals.
It matched the heaviest defeat Montgomerie has suffered in 29 games going all the way back to his debut in 1991 and afterwards he immediately turned his thoughts to the Ryder Cup.
"It proves how good our squad is, " he said, "and we must play around with it so that we don't play five matches and are fresh for the singles. We have a fantastic squad. I didn't get many breaks really, but that's like a manager complaining about the fourth goal being offside when he's lost 6-0."
Casey, however, was modest in victory. "I think I got lucky, " he said. "I didn't get the usual Colin Montgomerie for whatever reason. When he's at his best he's one of the world's greatest."
Casey, seeded only 12th of the 16 players who began the week, considered Montgomerie favourite for their clash, but the Scot was behind early and could not find the form which had enabled him to come from four down against defending champion Michael Campbell in the quarter-finals.
Montgomerie, winner in 1999 and three times the Volvo PGA champion on the course, managed only a twoover-par 74 in the morning round and was always going to find it difficult to recover from there.
|