Marc Leishman is hoping a putting tweak will help him qualify for next week’s lucrative World Golf Championships event following a costly missed cut.

Leishman fell from 49th in the world to 52nd when he failed to make the weekend play in the US PGA Tour event in Los Angeles last week.

It cost him an invite to the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral in Florida.

But any player who works their way into the top 50 after this week’s Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens will earn a last-minute start at Doral.

The WGC event has no cut, guaranteeing four rounds against the world’s best players and hence it’s a key lead-up event to the year’s first major, the Masters in April.

“It was a shame to fall out of the top 50 last week but this represents a challenge and a chance to get back in and get to Doral,” said Leishman.

While last week was his first missed cut since the season started in October, Leishman has just a lone top-10 finish from November and his best result in 2015 is a tied 27th at Torrey Pines when he was in contention before a poor final round.

He has pinpointed his putting as the key to contending more often and recently spent a session in the Scotty Cameron putting studio to study videotape and see if changes were needed.

“That is what has been killing me,” he said.

“I have hit a lot of good shots but not taken advantage of those on the greens so it was time to go in and check things out.

“It wasn’t crisis time or anything like that. It was just more stopping things that may have been sneaking in.

“My head was moving a little bit on the way down so I need to keep that steadier as the less moving parts the better.”

Robert Allenby, who has four previous top-five finishes in the event, is the only other Australian in the field this week.

Jason Day, Adam Scott, John Senden, Geoff Ogilvy, Greg Chalmers and Steven Jeffress are already in the field next week at Doral, with Scott set to make his first start of the year after the recent birth of his first child.