England's Paul Casey kept the ball in play and kept the pressure on Scotland's Colin Montgomerie, winning easily Saturday to advance to the final of the World Match Play Championship.

Casey, trying to become the first player to win in his debut in event since South African Ernie Els in 1994, hit a five-iron from 210 yards into four feet for an eagle on the 12th hole, and only needed to par the next hole to win 6 and 5.

He will play either American Shaun Micheel or Sweden's Robert Karlsson, who were all square with four holes to play.

``For whatever reason, it wasn't Colin's best,'' Casey said.

It wasn't Casey's best either, but he rarely missed the fairway _ usually 20 yards or more past Montgomerie _ and while he didn't give himself many easy birdie chances, he was rarely in position to make worse than par.

Casey built a 5-up lead at lunch, posting a 68 as Montgomerie played some of his worst golf of the week. He lost one hole with a three-putt, hit an approach so badly that he uttered ``What was that?'' _ a phrase not heard since his seven-iron on the 18th hole at Winged Foot that cost him the U.S. Open _ and made only two birdies.

``I need to win three of the first seven in the afternoon,'' Montgomerie said.

No chance.

Casey stretched his lead to 7-up when he two-putted for birdie on the par-5 fourth, and Montgomerie never got closer than a five-hole deficit the rest of the way.

Monty must have known it wasn't his day when a beautiful tee shot on the eighth hole took a wicked hop of a hump in the fairway and bounced into the base of a hillock. His only play was to flex his left leg on the hillock and swing with all his might. It was a cold shank, and he put the next one in the water.

``I didn't get many breaks,'' he said. ``But that's like the manager complaining that the fourth goal was offsides when it's 6-nil.''

His scowl turned into self-deprecating humour at the end. Preparing to hit his second shot into the par-5 12th, he noticed a fan some 180 yards away coming out of the woods, and Montgomerie's caddie shouted toward the man to get him to stop. The man covered his head and ran into the woods.

``I haven't hit it yet,'' Montgomerie said loudly. ``I'm not that bad.''

He wasn't very good, either.

He made only four birdies _ three of them on the par 5s _ and spent as much time barking at fans for having cameras than concentrating on getting the ball in the fairway and anywhere near the hole.

The only consolation was having Casey as a teammate next week in the Ryder Cup.

``It proves how good our squad is for next week,'' he said.

Casey is eager for his second time playing the Americans in the Ryder Cup, although he has other interests at the moment. At stake is 1 million pounds ($2.1 million Cdn) that goes to the winner, the richest prize among official events worldwide.