VIRGINIA WATER, England -- Paul Casey coolly birdied the last two holes to win the BMW PGA Championship by one stroke and rise to No. 3 in the world on Sunday.

Casey, 41st at the start of the year, fired a closing 4-under 68 to hold off fast-charging local resident Ross Fisher, who had completed a week's-best 64 and was waiting to see if that would be good enough to force a playoff in the biggest non-major on the European Tour schedule.

But the 31-year-old Casey holed from eight feet for a birdie at the 17th and then from four feet after blasting out of a greenside bunker at the last to add this title to the Abu Dhabi Championship and Shell Houston Open titles he won earlier this year.

Casey, who as a boy used to sneak into Wentworth to watch previous editions of this tournament, had also finished runner-up to Geoff Ogilvy in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona.

"It was not an easy putt but no putt to win a title ever is," Casey said of his curling four-footer at the last. "This feels great. All the great names are on this trophy and I wanted to be there as well."

He played the front nine in level par. "I ground it out," he said." I saw that Ross was having a great round and I knew it would be tough."

Looking back to this tournament in the late 1980s, when it was won by the likes of Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer, Casey said: "There are some impressive names on that trophy. So it's nice to be part of that history.

"It's quite strange thinking I used to stand there listening to the sound of the golf ball off the club whistle past your head, and now I'm on the other side of the ropes."

Casey, who also won the World Match Play title here in 2006, finished on 271 with Fisher on 272.

Soren Kjeldsen, playing with Casey, shot 69 to take third place on 275 from Stephen Dodd, whose 67 gave him fourth place on 276.

Rory McIlroy, in contention after a 65 on Saturday, could only manage a 71 and was fifth.

Despite that finish, the 20-year-old player from Northern Ireland said: "This has been a great week for me because it has put me back on track."

Looking ahead to this week's European Open at The London Club, he added: "I feel as if I have the game to win there. This is a good building block for the rest of the season." He

was one ahead of a group including former British Open champion Ben Curtis, who produced a whirlwind finish with birdies on the 15th and 16th, and eagle-3s on the last two.

He holed from 30 and 15 feet for the birdies, then rifled a 3-wood 280 yards to within four feet for eagle at 17. His second at the last hole finished up against the hospitality pavilion. He took a free drop and pitched in from 50 feet.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, winner last year and co-leader after the first round this time, had a double eagle-2 at the long fourth hole, where his 6-iron second from 206 yards finished in the hole. But he faded to a 76 and had to share 43rd place after a triple-bogey 7 on the 13th.

The tournament's outcome was far from certain when Casey found a greenside bunker with his approach to the par-5 last. But he splashed out to five feet and made no mistake on the winning putt.

The last time Britain had a player in the world's top three was Colin Montgomerie nine years ago -- and since the rankings began in 1986 Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam are the only others to make it as high.

Two years ago, Fisher was the one who led with a round to play and on that occasion he crashed to 39th spot with an horrendous 84. This time the final day saw something very different from him.

Five behind at the start of the day, he actually led on his own when he notched his sixth birdie of the day on the long 12th. He also picked up shots on the 17th and 18th, but it was not enough and by just missing an 18-foot eagle chance at the last he had to settle for the runner-up spot.

Casey had not looked at leaderboards on the front nine, but when he did glance up and see that Fisher was on a charge he reacted brilliantly.

After drawing level by matching Fisher's two-putt birdie at the 531-yard 12th, he converted a 15-foot chance three holes later -- Fisher had missed from half that distance.

He then scrambled a par on the 16th after pulling his tee shot into sand, made a nine-footer at the next and after "only" parring the 538-yard 18th in the first three rounds made it fourth time lucky.

The most amazing finish came from former British Open champion Curtis, who birdied the 15th and 16th and then eagled the two closing par 5s for his 67.

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