Rory McIlroy put himself in contention for a US Masters debut next April despite falling just short of securing a maiden European Tour win at the UBS Hong Kong Open over the weekend. The 19-year-old's second-place finish moved him up to 50th in the world rankings.
Should McIlory remain in the top 50 at the end of next month he would earn himself a debut at The Masters at Augusta next year.
And the Co Down teenager insisted the defeat in Hong Kong is already behind him as he focuses on making a solid start to 2009.
"As long as I can keep putting myself in these positions and feeling the nerves and the adrenaline, I'll know I'm doing things right," said McIlroy, who failed to make the cut at the UBS Hong Kong Open last year in the first tournament of his rookie season on the European Tour.
"It puts me in a great position going into the new year and I have two events left in South Africa. If I don't win there, I'll hopefully win sometime next year. As long as I keep putting myself in these positions, I'll be able to pull through sooner or later."
McIlroy should not be disheartened with his performance yesterday having climbed the leaderboard with a five-under-par 65 to enter a three-way play-off with Lin Wen-tang of Chinese Taipei and Francesco Molinari.
Molinari could only par the first play-off hole on the par-four 18th while Lin and McIlroy both birdied meaning the two would face off again.
McIlroy sent his tee shot into a crowd of spectators to the left of the fairway but recovered well by hitting his approach shot onto the edge of the green.
Lin, meanwhile, hit the fairway from the tee before superbly hitting his second shot to within a foot of the pin. When McIlroy failed to putt for a birdie, the 34-year-old applied the easy finish to become the first Asian player in a decade to win the tournament.
"I thought I probably did enough to make three at the first play-off hole and I had an incredible shot for my second shot, but it just wasn't meant to be," added McIlroy.
"Obviously it's still been a great week for me. I'll look back on it, and I've played really well. I couldn't have done much more."
World Rankings(last week's positions in brackets)
1. (1) Tiger Woods (United States) 13.48 average points
2. (2) Sergio Garcia (Spain) 8.49
3. (3) Phil Mickelson (United States) 7.80
4. (4) Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 7.39
5. (5) Vijay Singh (Fiji) 7.32
6. (6) Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 5.21
7. (7) Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 5.20
8. (8) Ernie Els (South Africa) 4.88
9. (9) Anthony Kim (United States) 4.78
10. (10) Lee Westwood (England) 4.76
11. (12) Jim Furyk (United States) 4.68
12. (11) Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 4.62
13. (13) Steve Stricker (United States) 4.35
14. (14) Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 4.28
15. (15) Stewart Cink (United States) 4.24
16. (16) KJ Choi (South Korea) 4.17
17. (17) Adam Scott (Australia) 4.15
18. (18) Justin Rose (England) 4.09
19. (19) Kenny Perry (United States) 3.85
20. (20) Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 3.67
Other leading Irish players
31. (33) Graeme McDowell 2.98
50. (63) Rory McIlroy 2.35
64. (61) Darren Clarke 2.03
100. (94) Paul McGinley 1.51
