Colin Montgomerie believes he can still secure a place at the Masters in April despite finishing a disappointing joint 23rd at last week's Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

The eight-time Order of Merit winner has targeted "three top-10s or a couple of top fives" to reach the top 50 in the world rankings that will secure him a place at the Augusta event. However a final-round 71 left the 44-year-old three strokes short of his target and resulted in him slipping four places down the rankings to 65th in the world.

"The result [in Abu Dhabi] will not affect it either way. It will get me some points but not enough to move in the right direction, I have got to get top 10s. I have got to go all out and keep going," Montgomerie said.

Montgomerie's best finish at the Masters is a tie for eighth in 1998 and he missed the cut last year. After starting the final round tied for 19th, four birdies in six holes looked to have moved him up the leaderboard but a bogey at the 483-yard 17th saw him finish 10 strokes behind Martin Kaymer, last season’s rookie of the year, who won his maiden European Tour event.

Despite not achieving his goal, Montgomerie was relatively pleased with the tournament, which included a bogey-free third-round of 68.

"This week went well. It was difficult, plus I was surprised the cut was set at one-over which is very good," said the Scot, who has recently admitted that he is finding it hard to compete for the top prizes because of his age.

He could still be in contention for next month's Accenture World Match Play Championship in Arizona should he halt his slide down the rankings. The top-64 qualify, however Ernie Els has not put the event on his schedule meaning Montgomerie is in line to face world number one Tiger Woods on the opening day should the rankings remain unaltered.