Brendan Steele

Reached 35th in the world three years ago, but after slipping down to 85th it was only on July 11 that he received a call-up to The Open Championship when Bubba Watson withdrew.

Steele is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, the first of those coming in his rookie season at the 2011 Valero Texas Open after he had claimed the previous year’s Nationwide Tour Championship.

It earned Steele an invitation to the 2012 Masters, but it would be five years before he played Augusta National again. His best major performances to date are a tie for 12th in the 2015 PGA Championship and finishes of 13th and 15th in the U.S. Open, while his other two Tour victories were both in the Safeway Open.

In 2016 he defeated Patton Kizzire by one and in his title defence he overcame Tony Finau by two.

At the start of last year lost a play-off to Cameron Smith for the Sony Open in Hawaii and two months later tied for fourth in the Honda Classic.

The same two events this season saw him shine again. He was joint fourth in Hawaii two strokes behind winner Kevin Na and at the Honda he tied for third, six behind Matt Jones.