Harding has Augusta National on his mind

Cape Town - South Africa's Justin Harding edged closer to securing his debut spot at the Masters next month.

Harding finished tied for second at last weekend's Kenya Open at Karen Country Club - finishing one shot adrift from Italian Guido Migliozzi.

The 33-year-old moved up four spots to break into the world Top 50 and sit at No 48th in the world - giving him a reasonable shot at getting into the Masters.

Should Harding keep his world ranking during the week prior to April's Masters - he could join compatriots and former Masters champions Charl Schwartzel and Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace, as well as amateur Jovan Rebula at this year's first Major.

"I think I'm probably still going to have to have a decent result come the Match Play but I've at least given myself a decent shot at Augusta," Harding told the European Tour website.

"It was another good week, pretty pleased. I battled, probably from hole one, with club selection and the wind swirling around so to have come out and posted 15 under, I'm pleased.

"I had a good week last week and another one this week so I'm sitting quite nicely first season on the European Tour," he said.

Harding has won five times over the last 10 months - twice in South Africa, twice in Asia, once on the European Tour in the Qatar Masters.

Harding will not be participating in this week's European Tour event, the Maybank Championship.

The 2019 Masters gets under way from April 11-14 with American Patrick Reed the defending champion.

????@JustinHarding60 is the 2nd player to break into the World Top 50 for the first time in their career so far in 2019!Harding entered the OWGR back in 2005, competeing in a total of 196 OWGR Eligible Tournaments, 8 wins & 35 Top 10 finishes!#OWGR#OfficialWorldGolfRanking pic.twitter.com/TipE5TzFQv

— OWGR (@OWGRltd) March 18, 2019