By Tony Webeck

Jason Day has taken a further step towards a return to The Masters with a tie for 10th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida.

Given the tournament’s elevated status on the PGA TOUR and the quality of the field assembled at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Day’s closing round of two-under is likely to result in a further boost to his world ranking of No.43.

Already exempt into this week’s THE PLAYERS Championship, Day needs simply to maintain his spot inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings to ensure he doesn’t miss out on an invitation to Augusta National for the second straight year.

As American Kurt Kitayama clinched his maiden PGA TOUR title, Day did his scoring on the par 5s at Bay Hill.

He birdied both on the front nine with putts from three and eight feet respectively at four and six but three-putted the par-5 12th to make bogey.

A two-putt from 60 feet from the fringe at the par-5 16th got Day back to two-under his round and a five-under tournament total, four shots back of the winner.

Playing in the event for the first time, Kiwi Ryan Fox delivered one of the best rounds on Sunday, his five-under 67 bettered only by Webb Simpson as he climbed 30 spots into a share of 14th.

Fox was one of only seven players to make birdie on Bay Hill’s iconic 18th hole, converting a wonderful approach from just inside 10 feet to finish in fine fashion.

Geoff Ogilvy recorded his best finish on the PGA TOUR in more than six years with a tie for 11th at the Puerto Rico Open as Mark Hensby logged his second top-five finish of the PGA TOUR Champions season at the Cologuard Classic.

Tied for 10th at the start of the third and final round, Hensby went out in five-under in a bogey-free seven-under 65 to finish tied for third, just three back of champion David Toms.

West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley notched a top-10 finish in her debut start on the Ladies European Tour in South Africa as Hannah Green finished tied for 20th at the LPGA Tour’s HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. Results

PGA TOUR

Arnold Palmer Invitational Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Orlando, Florida 1 Kurt Kitayama 67-68-72-72—279 $US3.6m T10 Jason Day 71-73-69-70—283 $485,000 T14 Ryan Fox (NZ) 73-73-71-67—284 $325,000 T31 Adam Scott 69-71-75-72—287 $125,000 T34 Aaron Baddeley 72-72-73-71—288 $104,200 MC Cam Davis 71-76—147 MC Lucas Herbert 74-73—147 MC Min Woo Lee 75-79—154 Puerto Rico Open Grand Reserve Golf Club, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 1 Nico Echavarria 67-67-65-68—267 $US684,000 T11 Geoff Ogilvy 69-68-70-69—276 $84,550 T33 Greg Chalmers 69-74-71-67—281 $19,841 MC Cameron Percy 77-73—150 LPGA Tour

HSBC Women’s World Championship Sentosa Golf Club (Tanjong Cse), Singapore 1 Jin Young Ko 72-65-65-69—271 $US270,000 T20 Hannah Green 70-69-71-71—281 $20,207 T31 Lydia Ko (NZ) 70-69-70-74—283 $13,718 T52 Minjee Lee 72-74-71-74—291 $5,839 Ladies European Tour

Joburg Ladies Open Modderfontein Golf Club, Lethabong, South Africa 1 Lily May Humphreys 70-70-73-67—280 €45,000 T8 Kirsten Rudgeley 75-67-72-71—285 €7,200 T32 Momoka Kobori (NZ) 73-72-76-72—293 €2,464.29 T56 Wenyung Keh (NZ) 72-76-79-73—300 €990 PGA TOUR Champions

Cologuard Classic Omni Tucson National, Tucson, Arizona 1 David Toms 68-65-68—201 $US330,000 T3 Mark Hensby 69-70-65—204 T19 Stuart Appleby 72-67-71—210 T26 David McKenzie 73-71-67—211 T30 Rod Pampling 74-71-67—212 T30 Richard Green 69-71-72—212 T49 John Senden 74-70-72—216 Epson Tour

Florida's Natural Charity Classic Country Club of Winter Haven, Winter Haven, Florida 1 Agathe Laisne 73-68-66—207 T30 Gabriela Ruffels 73-73-70—216 T46 Hira Naveed 75-72-72—219 T46 Robyn Choi 70-74-75—219 MC Sarah Jane Smith 79-75—154 MC Amelia Garvey (NZ) 82-75—157