Patrick Cantlay

Made his Open debut at Carnoustie in 2018 and missed out on a top-ten finish by just one stroke. 

Will be at Royal Portrush after again qualifying for the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship. Having won the Mark McCormack Award as the world’s top amateur in 2011 – he was No 1 for a record 54 consecutive weeks - Cantlay could have played at Royal Lytham and St Annes the following summer, but decided to turn professional.

By then he had twice made the cut in the US Open and once at the Masters as well as appearing in the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen. After winning a Web.com Tour event in 2013 he was kept out of action by a stress fracture in his back and could not even pick up a club for 10 months. 

In 2016 he was out walking with caddie Chris Roth when a hit-and-run driver killed his long-time friend. Golf understandably lost its appeal, but eventually he committed himself to the sport again. In 2017 he was runner-up to Adam Hadwin in the Valspar Championship, then won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and in 2018 he climbed into the world’s top 25.