Kalle Samooja

Makes his Open debut on the back of a joint fourth place at the recent Made in HimmerLand tournament in Denmark.

The event offered three places at Royal Liverpool, but winner Rasmus Hojgaard and Richie Ramsay, who came third, were already exempt and so were the higher-ranked pair Robert MacIntyre and Alexander Bjork, who finished alongside Samooja on 11-under-par.

Samooja made five unsuccessful trips to the DP World Tour qualifying school before earning promotion from the Challenge circuit. He was then in a five-way play-off for the 2019 Omega European Masters in Switzerland – Rory McIlroy was also involved, but it was won by Sebastian Soderberg – and had another near miss the following season when he lost at the first extra hole to Callum Shinkwin in Cyprus.

But in June last year it all came right when he finished the Porsche European Open with an eight-under-par 64 and took the title by two from Wil Besseling. It lifted him from 239th to 134th on the world rankings.