A great short game propelled Mackenzie Hughes into his best finish of the season at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open. And it came right when he needed it.

Hughes ended the week tied for fourth and pushed himself up 17 spots on the FedEx Cup Fall standings into 101st position. The top 100 at the end of the season earn fully exempt status for regular PGA Tour events.

“It was just kind of a battle this week,” admitted Hughes. “I feel like I played some nice golf in stretches, but also felt uncomfortable at times, my swing didn’t feel the way I wanted to at times. But yeah, I would say just the biggest thing was I competed hard this weekend and grinded.”

Hughes used his reliable short game well over the four days, finishing the tournament first overall in Strokes Gained: Around the Green. He was also fourth in Strokes Gained: Putting.

The Canadian ended the week one shot out of a tie for second place, but six shots back of winner Andrew Novak who cruised to a win at 25 under par.

“I feel like my game is close,” said Hughes after a final-round 66. “I mean, I’ve had a down year, but nice to see a result like that. It gives me a bit of momentum for the last three. Obviously, I still know I need more points, and I need to keep climbing, but today was a big step in the right direction. I’ve kind of not had those big results. I finished 20th to 30th a lot and you don’t get a lot for that. So, to have a nice result this week and to see some good things happen was encouraging.”

The only other Canadian player to move up in the standings was Ben Silverman, who tied for 19th and went from 117th to 116th place.

Sudarshan Yellamaraju (66), Adam Hadwin (172), Corey Conners (58), A.J. Ewart (104) and Taylor Pendrith (102) all slipped in the ranking. Adam Svensson, who missed the cut, remained in 182nd place.

There are three tournaments remaining on the schedule. This week, the tour stays in Mexico, moving over to Los Cabos for the World Wide Technology Championship.

Seven of Canadians are in the field again this week. The only one missing at this point is Hadwin who is the fifth alternate.