Brendon Todd

Todd makes his first Open appearance since he tied for 12th at St Andrews in 2015, when he missed out by only one stroke on the top-10 finish that would have earned him an instant return.

His first PGA Tour victory came at the 2014 HP Byron Nelson Championship and in November 2019 he won on back-to-back starts at the Bermuda Championship and Mayokoba Classic.

The first of those was by four strokes after a closing 62 containing seven successive birdies on the front nine. Yet little more than a year earlier Todd had missed the cut in 37 of his last 40 starts, had dropped outside the world’s top 2,000, failed to survive the second stage of the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School and was planning to retire and move into restaurant franchise ownership.

"It was basically the ball-striking yips," he said. “Every time I played I would hit a four-iron or three-wood 50 yards right. I knew why, but I couldn't really fix it.”

Eventually his form returned, however, and in August 2020 he entered the world’s top 40 for the first time on qualifying for the season-ending Tour Championship.

His Open call-up came on June 30 off the world rankings.