Oct11 Casey at Wentworth

Paul Casey hopes to achieve something this week that he has never managed before – successfully defend a title.

The Englishman won one million pounds (C$2 million) at the World Match Play Championship last year after beating former U.S. PGA champion Shaun Micheel by a record 10 and 8 in the final.

Top-seeded Casey starts his defence Thursday against American Jerry Kelly, at 55th the lowest-ranked player in the 16-man field.

Despite a summer slump, Casey’s game is improving just in time.

“Winning this week would turn it around. I would be a very happy man because I’ve never defended a title successfully,” Casey said Wednesday.

“I played three very good rounds at the Dunhill Links last week,” said Casey, who tied for sixth in Scotland. “My 67 on the last day was the low round of the day.”

Casey, 30, who played golf at Arizona State University, plans to re-apply for his U.S. Tour card next year and will play in at least the 15 events required for membership.

Ernie Els, the highest-ranked player at Wentworth this week at No. 5 and a six-time winner of the title, begins against Colin Montgomerie. Third-seeded Padraig Harrington, the British Open champion, plays Anders Hansen of Denmark, winner of the BMW PGA Championship in May.

The other matches are: Rory Sabbatini against Soren Hansen; Justin Rose against Hunter Mahan; Henrik Stenson against Woody Austin; Niclas Fasth against Andres Romero; and, Retief Goosen against U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera.

Played at the 7,308-yard, par-72 West Course, all matches are 36 holes.

Casey won his first event of the year in Abu Dhabi, but has not won since, although he finished all four majors this year and was tied for 10th in the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Kelly has had equipment problems this year after a successful run of top 10 finishes – he tied for 5th at the Masters and 7th at the U.S.Open. He has been struggling to find a driver he likes and was experimenting with three on the practice range Wednesday.

Montgomerie and Els both imploded at the Dunhill Links.

Montgomerie, who took 38 putts in a third round 74 to miss the final round cut, worked on his putting in the rain at Wentworth for 90 minutes on Tuesday evening.

“I kind of work things out that way,” Montgomerie said. “I started thinking about every putt for a half, because in match play you’re putting for a half or a win.”

Els, who did not speak to the press Wednesday, putted his third shot into a bunker at the 16th on Sunday and took a triple bogey 7 to lose all chance of victory.