The PGA news this week focused on the sad news that Amy Mickelson was battling breast cancer. Less than six months after the return of the game's number one player Tiger Woods, the world's second best player, Phil Mickelson, announced he would put his competitive schedule on hold to be with his ailing wife.

While Rory Sabbatini was offering some stellar play to earn his fifth career title on the PGA Tour, across the pond Englishman Paul Casey quietly continued his run up the world ladder. A remarkable up and down from the bunker on the eighteenth and final hole helped Casey win one of "The European Tour's" flagship events last weekend, the BMW PGA Championship held at the storied Wentworth Club.

With the win, a one stroke victory over yet another emerging star, fellow Englishman Ross Fisher, Casey slipped past Geoff Ogilvy to the top of the European Order of Merit, The Race To Dubai. The win also helped Casey continue his phenomenal climb up the world rankings.

The win was his third of the season. Casey previously had one on each tour, the Shell Houston Open on the PGA and the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on the European.

Just as importantly for the Peter Kostis' pupil is his performance relative to number of starts. He has played in only six events on American soil, but a win, a second (at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship) and three other top twenty finishes (11th at the Verizon Heritage, 14th at The Players Championship, and 20th at the Masters) has him in 8th in both Fed Ex Cup points and in earnings on the PGA Tour. remarkably, both numbers top that of Woods who has played the same number of events.

In ranking first in Europe, Casey is now given credit for nine starts (the Masters and the two WGC events count for both tours). He owns seven top twenty performances overall though he ranks first ahead of Ogilvy, in large part, due to the Aussie's having only four credited starts across the pond.

Still, while most are unfamiliar with Casey, his string of strong play has actually been going on for quite some time now. In 2007 he was one of only seven players to make the cut in all four majors and in 2008 he had eight top tens world wide. Those performances come on the heels of finishing second on the European Order of Merit in 2006, the year he would win The European Tour Golfer of the Year award.

And heading back just a wee bit further, while Casey was honing his skills at Arizona State University, he demonstrated his potential for stardom while still in college. He became the first player to win three successive Pac-10 Championships and in the 2000 Pac-10 Championship he broke the scoring record held by none other than Tiger Woods.

As the world found out a year ago with one Kenny Perry, when a golfer gets hot he can ride the flame for many a week. Casey right now is about as hot as it can get.

When the year began, the thought was that Lefty might be the one to knock Woods from the number one slot.

Now, folks may want to turn their attention to this 31-year-old from Esher, England.

Photo courtesy of PocketWiley.