Cameron Smith will need to make one of the most difficult leaps on golf's world rankings from a handful of events if he is to lock up an invitation to the Masters.
At No.58, the Queenslander sits just outside the world's top 50 golfers who secure automatic entry to the Masters when the field for Augusta National is all but finalised on March 26.
With Smith likely to play four US PGA Tour events before the year's first major in April, the 24-year-old will need to make every one count, starting with this week's Phoenix Open, which includes five of the world's top 10 players.
"(The Masters) is the goal and until I get in there, I've just got to keep working hard and have to try make something of it. I've only got a few months," Smith said.
After the TPC Scottsdale event, Smith plans to peg it up at the LA Open in two weeks, which looms as his last chance to secure a start in the World Golf Championships event in Mexico in March where a path to Augusta could be made much easier.
Should he miss qualification for the first WGC event of the year, Smith would then have only the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Matchplay as his final plays for a second career Masters berth.
Following the WGC-Matchplay, only the winner of the Houston Open receives the last spot in the Masters field.
Despite top 20 results in his past three PGA Tour events, Smith has fallen backwards in the world rankings from the No.56 spot he held in early January.
But the Australian PGA Championship winner is confident of getting the job done.
"I'm feeling pretty confident with the form at the moment," said Smith, who debuted at the 2016 Masters.
"So I'm going to try and play as much as I can without straining myself, have a couple of weeks off and then get prepped up for the rest of that Florida swing."
Also in the Phoenix Open field is fellow Australian Marc Leishman, who entered the final day of last week's PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines just one shot back of eventual winner Jason Day.
Leishman featured high on the leaderboard at last year's Phoenix Open before fading to a share of 24th in the final round.
He is joined by countryman Aaron Baddeley, Geoff Ogilvy and Greg Chalmers.
