The Waste Management Phoenix Open could not have come at a better time for Phil Mickelson, who stood perhaps a week away from falling outside the world’s top 50 for the first time since November 1993.

Instead, a tie for fifth lifted Mickelson from No.49 to 41st in the newest rankings.

“I think that my game’s gotten better each week, my focus is getting better each week and I’m going to a golf course that I’ve played very well on in the past,” said Mickelson following his Sunday round in Arizona.

“So I’m hoping that it continues to build on this. This shouldn’t just be a one week deal, I should be getting better and better as the weeks go on.”

He needs to stay up two more weeks to land a spot in the year’s first World Golf Championships event in Mexico. Fortunately for Lefty, next is Pebble Beach where he’s a four-time champ.

PHIL’S RECENT RANKINGS

31st – 10/29 (T15 at WGC China)
35th – 11/26 (year-end break)
37th – 12/31 (year-end break)
43rd – 01/14 (final week of break)
46th – 01/21 (MC at CareerBuilder)
49th – 01/28 (T45 at Farmers Ins. Open)
41st – 02/05 (T5 at Phoenix)

Content in this post originally appeared in Jeff Shain’s The Starter.