Paul Casey knows he has been far too quiet this season - only 28th on the European Order of Merit and down to 39th in the world.

But this week he is back playing Wentworth, a course he loves, and he is hoping 20 months on from his World Match Play success there, he can make his presence felt in stroke play too.

The BMW PGA Championship is the European Tour's flagship event and this season carries a record first prize of nearly £600,000.

If he wins it on Sunday, Casey could leap from 25th to sixth in the Ryder Cup standings, but rather than piling that pressure on himself, the 30-year-old said: "I need to play better golf, that's all.

"I don't have a great record in the PGA (a best of ninth in six appearances), but I've had success round here and the changes suit me."

Wentworth resident Ernie Els was brought in by the club to make it more of a test.

"Although I loved it the way it was, I can take advantage of my length on holes like the 12th, where I can take the ditch out of play," added Casey.

"It's a big debate whether length improves courses or not. It is what it is - I've tended to find trouble all over the place, but that's part of the fun of Wentworth.

"After the majors it's the next event we Europeans want to win. Some guys love the course, some loathe it, yet when May comes we know we are going to be coming here and there are few finer places when the sun is shining."

The same is true of Augusta in April, of course, and this year's Masters was shaping up to be one of the great weeks of Casey's career until his final round went pear-shaped when he double-bogeyed the short fourth and then had his ball move on him as he went to putt on the sixth.

He fell back from fourth to 11th with a 79, but reflected: "I went away with a lot of positive thoughts. The way the course is now it's difficult to press and be aggressive and I was a victim of that.

"But my game is fine. I just need to start scoring a bit better.

"My last win was in Abu Dhabi in January last year. That's a long time ago."