Beating American Tiger Woods was only the start of an amazing week for compatriot Shaun Micheel. Now he has a chance to win the richest prize in golf.

Micheel went the distance for the first time Saturday in the World Match Play Championship, outlasting Sweden's Robert Karlsson for a 2-up victory that put him into the final match against England's Paul Casey.

The winner gets one million pounds ($2.1 million Cdn)), the largest cheque in official tournaments worldwide. Micheel also needs to win to climb into the top 50 in the world and qualify for the US$7.5-million World Golf Championship in two weeks outside London.

But his work is far from finished.

Micheel, who started the week at Wentworth by ending Woods' five-tournament winning streak, again has to play an Englishman in front of an English gallery, which might be the closest he gets to a Ryder Cup experience. He beat Luke Donald in the quarter-finals.

Casey kept the ball in play and kept the pressure on Scotland's Colin Montgomerie, his third straight victory without going all 36 holes. Casey, trying to become the first player to win in his debut since South African Ernie Els in 1994, hit a dive-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.

``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.

Casey beat two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen of South Africa (6 and 4), then toppled former Masters champion Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., (5 and 3). Montgomerie is an eight-time Order of Merit winner, and Casey needed only 31 holes to beat him.

Micheel had a tougher time.

Neither player led by more than 2-up the entire match. Micheel took the lead for good when Karlsson, who makes his Ryder Cup debut next week, missed the 15th green and failed to save par with an eight-foot putt.

With Karlsson poised to square the match on the par-5 17th, Micheel knocked in a 12-foot birdie putt to keep the lead, and both players found a greenside bunker on the par-5 18th. Micheel blasted out to four feet, and he never had to putt when Karlsson missed his eight-footer.

Monty must have known it wasn't his day when a tee shot on the eighth hole took a wicked hop off 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 offside when it's 6-0.''

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 caddied 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 with cameras as 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. As well as the prize money, he has a chance to go atop the Order of Merit on the European Tour with three big tournaments remaining _ a World Golf Championship, Dunhill Links Championship and the season-ending Volvo Masters.