Aaron Wise

Narrowly missed out on an Open debut at Carnoustie off the world rankings, but qualifying for the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship guaranteed him a start at Royal Portrush.

Was playing only his 18th event as a member of the PGA Tour when he won the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson by three strokes from Marc Leishman – and that only two weeks after he was joint runner-up to Jason Day at the Wells Fargo Championship.

The spell took him from 206th in the world to 66th and he has climbed further since. Born in Cape Town, but his family moved to America when he was three.

In 2016 he was the star of the winning University of Oregon team at the NCAA Championship and by taking the individual title joined an illustrious list which includes Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Luke Donald.

He turned professional on qualifying for the US Open and on his third start won on the Canadian Tour. More success came on the 2017 Web.com Tour to confirm his status as one of the game’s emerging talents.