Casey ahead at the half way stage

May 23 2009 By John Whitbread

WEYBRIDGE ace Paul Casey heads an elite international field by two shots at the half-way stage of the £4.1 million BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Thirty-one-year old Casey, who pocketed the largest ever winner's cheque of £1million when he won the HSBC World Match Play at the famous West Course in 2006, shot a five under par second round 67 to be eight under for the championship.

Close up behind him are a clutch of six players on -6 including defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez and Anthony Wall, a fellow graduate of the Foxhils Foundation at Ottershaw.

Casey might have held an even stronger lead, as he went to 10 under par at the 13th where he recorded a stunning eagle, holing his 160 yard nine iron second shot. He had already eagled the long par  five fourth hole.

But after dropping a shot at the short 14th he carved his drive right into the woods at the 610 yard 17th.

His ball finished just a foot from a large tree trunk and Casey bent his favourite four iron with his intended escape shot on the way to a bogey six.

"Overall it's a little bittersweet, " said Casey, already a winner on both sides of the Atlantic this year. "I can't be too disappointed to score a 67 on a very tough day, but I do feel I left a couple of shots out there.

"I just hope I can keep producing the good stuff and cut out those few mistakes. I know there are some fine players ganing up behind me, especially Miguel, who will be passionate to defend his title."

Casey also had praise for Wentworth's Ross Fisher, his playing partner for the first two rounds: "Ross has made a great impact in a very short time and he certainly has all the attributes to become a really valuable Ryder Cup player.

Fisher managed to keep himself in the hunt at -3 with a battling one over par second round 73, despite an horrendous triple bogey seven at the first hole, where his second shot  skidded over the green into an unplayable lie.

" I found it a lot tougher today," admitted Fisher. "It is so hard and fast, it is like a links course. Yesterday the ball was pitching and stopping, but today it was pitching and racing on – and that got me into trouble a few times."

That was certainly true at the par four 15th when his astonishing 341 yard drive finished just inches short of a fairway ditch.

"Still, I am very much in the hunt, just five shots off the lead with two rounds to go. It's going to be a very exciting weekend."

Virginia Water's David Howell, who won the championship in 2006, finished on +1, just one shot inside the half-way cut mark, but there was no reprieve for Weybridge's Oliver Wilson, runner-up last year, who finished way outside the cut on +7.