Cameron Young

Shot a closing 65 on his debut at St Andrews and would be this year’s defending Champion Golfer of the Year but for the fact that Cameron Smith scored 64 and beat him to the Claret Jug by one.

Winner of back-to-back titles on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021 – he was a cumulative 37-under-par with not one round higher than 69 – Young has been knocking on the door of a first PGA Tour success since stepping up and has made it into the game’s top 20.

The former Wake Forest University student was joint second at the Sanderson Farms Championship and Genesis Invitational, then was part of a seven-way tie for third at the RBC Heritage and a month later contended for the PGA Championship, a costly double bogey on the 16th hole meaning he finished joint third again and only one shot away from the play-off in which Justin Thomas beat Will Zalatoris.

Two weeks after his Open performance, he was a runner-up again at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and another near-miss came at March’s WGC-Dell Match Play, where he beat Rory McIlroy in the semi-finals but lost to Sam Burns in the final.

In 2014, Young was a member of the United States teams at the Junior Ryder Cup and Junior World Cup and he represented his country again at September’s Presidents Cup.