Lawrie vaults into top 50 with Qatar Masters win, Stanley up to 52nd

LONDON -- Paul Lawrie rates himself a better golfer now at age 43 than he was when he won the British Open in 1999. Nobody who saw his four-shot victory at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters last week would argue with that self-assessment.

Lawrie fired a joint best-of-the-day 65 on Sunday to leave Australian Jason Day and Swede Peter Hanson in a distant tie for second, with a surprising John Daly two strokes further back in fourth.

Before he ended nine years without a win last March, Lawrie was down at 272nd in the world. Now he is back in the top 50 for the first since since 2003 -- and fourth in the race for spots on the European Ryder Cup team. Lawrie's only Ryder Cup appearance came two months after his Carnoustie triumph 13 years ago.

"I feel I'm getting better," he said. "I feel my ball-striking has improved immensely since I turned 40.

"I'm hitting it a lot further than I probably ever hit it," he added. "My short game and putting was probably a little better back in 1999, but I'm a much better player."

His victory took him from 78th up to 47th in the world ranking, while Kyle Stanley's amazing win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open lifted him from 87th up to 52nd. Daly, who entered last week ranked 543rd, vaulted up to No. 308 with his strong showing in Qatar.

Atop the rankings, there was no change in the top six, with Luke Donald atop the chart for a 36th straight week, followed by Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Steve Stricker and Webb Simpson. Jason Day climbed to seventh from 10th after his tie for second in Qatar, while Adam Scott slid to one spot to eighth, Charl Schwartzel dropped one spot to ninth and Dustin Johnson fell one spot to 10th.

The second 10 includes No. 11 Graeme McDowell, No. 12 Matt Kuchar, No. 13 Nick Watney, No. 14 K.J. Choi, No. 15 Brandt Snedeker, No. 16 Sergio Garcia, No. 17 Phil Mickelson, No. 18 Tiger Woods, No. 19 Bubba Watson and No. 20 Justin Rose.

Lawrie's climb up the rankings has put him into the 64-man line-up for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona later this month. But there is an even bigger prize to come if he's still in the top 50 at the end of March: The Masters.

"I haven't played [the Masters] since 2004, so that's quite exciting. The hard work I did over the last couple of years is obviously paying off," he said. "I'm not someone who looks ahead very much. I like to take it one week at a time, but I feel very good with what I'm doing.

"I keep saying that the Ryder Cup is a long way off and there's a lot of golf to be played," he added. "There are a lot of very good players. It would be silly to sit here and say that I'm going to get on the team, but I would love to.

"I played for Jose Maria (Olazabal) when he was the captain of the Royal Trophy (Europe vs. Asia) a few years ago," he explained. He was phenomenal, so let's hope we can keep going."