Keita Nakajima

Winner of the Mark McCormack Medal as the world’s leading amateur for the last two years before turning professional in September 2022.

Nakajima had already enjoyed success on the Japan Tour by then and, in 2021, he captured the Panasonic Open when he beat Ryutaro Nagano at the first hole of a play-off and with it moved close to breaking into the world’s top 200.

Came second in the 2019 Japan Amateur Championship and then went one better in 2021.

Just 15 when he was first invited to play a JGTO event, he held joint fourth place after an opening 69 in the Japan Open a year later and first topped the amateur world rankings in November 2020.

A year later, he won the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship, which also offered a place into The Open at St Andrews and an invitation to The Masters at Augusta National.

In all, Nakajima held top spot for a record 87 weeks before deciding to leave the amateur ranks. A month later, he shared the halfway lead at the Heiwa PGM Championship before eventually finishing joint fifth.