Known as Ben and the son of table tennis medallists at the 1988 Olympic Games in his home city Seoul, An was only 17 when he became the youngest-ever winner of the US Amateur in 2009.
Known as Ben and the son of table tennis medallists at the 1988 Olympic Games in his home city Seoul, An was only 17 when he became the youngest-ever winner of the US Amateur in 2009.
It earned him an Open debut at St Andrews the following summer and he won himself three more starts by becoming the first Asian golfer to capture the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2015.
It was his debut in the DP World Tour’s flagship event and he fired a sparkling closing 65 to win by six strokes on a record 21-under-par.
He went on to finish seventh on the Race to Dubai Order of Merit and was named Rookie of the Year. He has been in two three-man play-offs on the PGA Tour and was a runner-up again behind Dustin Johnson at the 2018 RBC Canadian Open the week after The Open at Carnoustie.
An was one of Ernie Els’s four wild card picks for the 2019 Presidents Cup and returned a win and two halves from his five games.
He earned his Hoylake place on Sunday by finishing joint third in the Genesis Scottish Open, where three spots were available in the final leg of The Open Qualifying Series. He opened the week with a career-low nine-under-par 61, which equalled the Renaissance course record.