Matthew Southgate

Made his Open debut at Royal Liverpool in 2014 and is back for his fifth Championship now after two closing birdies gave him third place in the 36-hole Final Qualifying event at Royal Porthcawl on July 4.

Five spots were up for grabs and Southgate said: “The rain came in pretty strong when we were coming up 16. I was only level par and hadn’t seen a leaderboard for that long, but I knew it was getting tougher.

"I finished 12th at Royal Troon (in 2016) and sixth at Royal Birkdale (2017) - it’s a Championship I love more than any other.”

As an amateur he won the 2010 St Andrews Links Trophy, but then made three trips to the DP World Tour qualifying school before breaking through with a fourth-place finish in the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open behind winner Rory McIlroy.

Back at the same event a year later he was joint runner-up to Jon Rahm and he has added further second places at the 2019 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship – he was only one behind Victor Perez there – and 2021 Porsche European Open.