Casey completed a dominating week in the World Match Play Championship by winning the last five holes for a 10-and-8 victory over Shaun Micheel, the largest margin of the championship match in the 43-year history of this tournament.

Along with claiming the richest prize of any official golf tournament in the world _ about US$1.87 million _ Casey moved atop the Order of Merit on the European Tour and broke into the top 20 in the world for the first time in his career.

He is only the fifth winner of the HSBC World Match Play Championship who has not captured a major.

Micheel thought he might be destined to win, especially after he beat Tiger Woods in the opening round to end the five-tournament winning streak of the world's No. 1 player. He didn't expect to go so far, and had to send out his laundry Saturday night because he did not bring enough shirts to last the entire week.

But it was a bitter end, starting with a double bogey on the 16th hole in the morning that turned the match.

``It's always hard when you make it this far and don't play well,'' Micheel said.

Casey didn't give Micheel _ or anyone else, for that matter _ much of a chance.

He set a tournament record by playing only 126 holes over four matches, breaking by two the record shared by Ian Woosnam and Padraig Harrington in 2001. And the margin of victory in the final easily beat Nick Faldo's 8-and-7 win over Jeff Sluman in 1992.

Casey beat two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, Canadian Mike Weir and eight-time Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie to reach the final against Micheel, who has not won since his PGA Championship victory in 2003 at Oak Hill.

Casey became the first player since Ernie Els in 1994 to win the World Match Play Championship in his debut, and it sends him to the Ryder Cup next week in Ireland on an incredible high.

So dominant was Casey this week that the biggest anyone had him down was Goosen, who was 2 up on the 11th hole of the opening round. Casey did not trail the final 71 holes of this tournament.

Despite the record score, this match could have gone either way until Casey took over with a bogey on the 16th.

Casey was 1 up and drove into the bunker, leaving him no chance of reaching the green. Micheel was in the fairway, but his approach sailed over the green and next to the grandstand. After taking free relief on a matted, muddy patch of grass, Micheel sculled his chip over the green, some 70 feet away.

Casey three-putted from the front of the green for a bogey, but Micheel lagged to five feet and also three-putted to take double bogey.

Micheel's caddie must have given him either the wrong yardage or the wrong club, because as they walked to the 17th tee, Micheel barked to caddie Tony Lingard, ``Don't say another word to me the rest of the day.''

Still rattled, Micheel pulled his tee shot on the par-5 17th to the left, clipped a tree on his next shot and had three-iron into the green for this third shot, while Casey was already there in two. That gave Casey a 3-up lead at lunch, and it was then a matter of time.

Casey won two of the first four holes with birdies as Micheel battled for pars, then the Englishman started firing at flags. He holed birdie putts of six feet on the seventh, five feet on the eighth and five feet on the ninth to make it a short afternoon.

It was the third European Tour victory of the season for Casey, the first English golfer to do that since Lee Westwood in 2000.

Micheel needed a victory to move into the top 50 in the world and qualify for the American Express Championship in two weeks at The Grove outside London, a $7.5 million event.

Instead, he likely was headed home to the United States to play in the Texas Open.