Jason Day is back in line for a Masters start after posting three straight top-10 PGA Tour finishes for the first time in almost three years.
Day closed with a six-under-par 65, the equal-second lowest final round of the day, to finish joint ninth at the ritzy Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles.
While never in the hunt on Sunday as Spanish superstar Jon Rahm claimed his fifth victory from nine starts, Day's charge up the leaderboard was huge for the former world No.1.
His latest top-10 result, following his fifth at last week's Phoenix Open and tie for seventh at last month's Farmers Insurance Open, catapulted Day back into the top 50.
Presently world No.46, after slashing his ranking in half in the past fortnight alone, the 35-year-old was languishing at No.175 after missing the halfway cut at the Fortinet Championship last September.
He's since record seven top-20 finishes from his past nine starts, plus a tie for 21st, and now three successive top-10 results for the first time since 2020.
If Day is still in the top 50 come April 2, the 2015 US PGA champion will be back at Augusta National for the season's first major.
He missed last year's Masters, as well as the US Open and British Open, and hasn't made a cut at Augusta since Tiger Woods' famous fifth win in 2019.
But after regaining trust in his adjusted swing and seemingly on top of his back issues that have troubled him for years, Day is playing some of his best golf again.
He opened with a hat-trick of birdies at Riviera Country Club on Sunday, was five under through seven holes and grabbed his seventh birdie of the round on the 17th to seal his all-important top-10 finish.
With Day back in the cut-off zone, Australia currently have six players in line for a Masters invite, including world No.4 and reigning Open champion Cameron Smith and Adam Scott on the 10th anniversary of his 2013 Augusta triumph.
World No.47 Min Woo Lee and world No.49 Lucas Herbert are also just inside the automatic qualifying mark, while Harrison Crowe booked his ticket with victory at last year's Asia Pacific Amateur Championship.
