Robert MacIntyre

The 2019 European Tour Rookie of the Year played his first major at Royal Portrush that season and guaranteed himself a return to the Championship with a brilliant joint-sixth-place finish.

Less than a year earlier he was not even in the game’s top 600, but back-to-back runner-up finishes gave him his Open debut through the Race to Dubai standings.

The left-hander was pipped at the Betfred British Masters at Hillside when Marcus Kinhult birdied the last two holes, then lost by one again to Bernd Wiesberger at the Made in Denmark tournament. Four months on it was Paul Casey who finished just in front of him at the Porsche European Open, but MacIntyre finally had his first Tour win in Cyprus in November.

He was so close to a place in the 2016 Open, losing in the final of The Amateur Championship to England’s Scott Gregory a year after becoming Scottish champion.

He played college golf in Louisiana and represented his country in the 2016 Eisenhower Trophy World Team Championship, then Britain and Ireland at the 2017 Walker Cup in Los Angeles, where he twice faced Cameron Champ in singles, winning one and halving the other game.

Having entered the world’s top 50 he made his Masters debut in April and, after a closing birdie earned a share of 12th place, he can look forward to playing there again next year.