Lee Westwood

Now 52, former world number one and 11-time Ryder Cup player Lee Westwood is back for his 90th major and 28th Open, three years on from his last appearance.

On Tuesday 1 July – just two days after competing in LIV Dallas – he earned a place at Royal Portrush, the course where he tied for fourth in 2019, by firing rounds of 70 and 67 to win the Final Qualifying event at Dundonald Links, south of Glasgow.

Westwood has amassed 19 top-10 finishes in majors, his nine top-3s a record for someone who has never won one.

A distant runner-up to Louis Oosthuizen at St Andrews in 2010 – the year he dethroned Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings – the closest he came to winning was a year earlier at Turnberry, three-putting the last hole to finish one behind play-off pair Stewart Cink and Tom Watson.

It is only five years ago, though, that he was the DP World Tour’s number one for the third time. That season he also became the circuit’s first player to win in four different decades. He then did the same in the Ryder Cup.