FORT WORTH, Texas (PA) -- Paul Casey returned to the United States Monday hoping that the next time he is back in Europe he is a major champion and even higher than third in the world.

Casey moved up from seventh to third in the rankings with his superb victory in the European Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday. Only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are ahead and it is not known when Mickelson will play next, of course, because of his wife Amy's breast cancer battle.

"My thoughts and Jocelyn's and my whole family go out to Phil and the whole Mickelson family," said Casey, whose career has taken off with three wins since he was married in December. "Hopefully everything turns out good for them. I would love for Phil to be playing."

Mickelson has pulled out of his title defense at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial this week, but Casey will be there and is also competing in The Memorial in Ohio next week.

After that, he will make an advance trip to Bethpage Black on New York's Long Island, where the U.S. Open starts on June 18.

He has not revealed all the "lofty" targets he and American coach Peter Kostis listed for this season, but with a smile he said it was "a reasonable assumption" that a major was among them.

"There are lots of things to try and accomplish and certainly the major success is at the top of the list," said the 31-year-old Englishman, whose birdies on the two closing par 5s gave him a one-shot win over countryman Ross Fisher.

The Ryder Cup star has yet to have even a top-5 finish in any of the majors and his best placing of sixth was five years ago in his Masters debut. But never has his confidence been this high and he is simply bowled over by the fact that Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie are the only other Britons to reach the top three in the world since the rankings began in 1986.

"Three of those guys are major champions and Colin won seven Order of Merits," he said.

When he was told that Montgomerie's haul was actually eight, he replied: "Sorry, Colin. Apologies to the Ryder Cup captain.

"It's very, very flattering to be included in those names," he added. "I still think I have a lot to do to get even slightly close to what they achieved."

Casey is clear leader of Europe's new "Race To Dubai" money list, moving ahead of Geoff Ogilvy three months after the Australian beat him in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona.

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