Sepp Straka

The first Austrian to earn a PGA Tour card, Straka began last year well outside the game’s leading 200 but by May had climbed all the way into the top 50.

That included a one-stroke victory over Shane Lowry at February’s Honda Classic. Both trailed Daniel Berger by five with a round to go, but the Vienna-born player shot a closing 66 to edge out the 2019 Open champion.

It brought a Masters debut a few weeks later in the same state where he went to university and he said: "The words aren't really coming to me right now. It's just crazy - I really don't know what to think."

Almost added the Sanderson Farms Championship in October, but lost a play-off to Mackenzie Hughes.

In the week that Lowry was winning at Royal Portrush Straka was finishing joint third at the Barbasol Championship in his rookie season on the American circuit and either side of Augusta Nation he tied for ninth in the Players Championship and then third again at the RBC Heritage. His rise up the rankings has now brought him his first Open Championship appearance.

Has an Austrian father and American mother, the family moving to Georgia when he was 14. His twin brother Sam played college golf alongside him.