Ben Campbell

A newcomer to The Open, but not to the Home of Golf.

“I played the St Andrews Links Trophy as an amateur and actually went close to winning it one year,” Campbell said after a runner-up finish behind Dimitrios Papadatos at February’s Vic Open.

That runner-up finish in Australia earned the Kiwi one of three places on offer at the event as part of The Open Qualifying Series following the cancellation of his home New Zealand Open because of travel restrictions.

“I would have played 20 times around the Old Course and it’ll be quite nice feeling a bit more comfortable. It should be awesome.”

Twice represented his country in the Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Team Championship, finishing as the fourth-leading individual in 2010 behind DP World Tour players JB Hansen, Alexander Levy and Romain Wattel.

Turned professional two years later but suffered injury setbacks and then a mystery illness also curtailed his progress.

In 2017, however, he was joint runner-up to Michael Hendry in the New Zealand Open and the following year lifted his nation’s PGA Championship, having lost a play-off on its previous staging. Closed with a 66 at the Vic Open, but so did Papadatos to pip him by one.