Talor Gooch

Made his Open debut at Royal St George's in 2021, then played at St Andrews last summer thanks to a joint seventh place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Three places were on offer as part of The Open Qualifying Series, but winner Scottie Scheffler, joint runners-up Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel and Tyrrell Hatton, plus fifth-placed Gary Woodland, were already exempt.

Shared the lead there going into the final round, but could not repeat his maiden PGA Tour victory at the RSM Classic in November. On that occasion he closed with a 64 to triumph by three and so earned a first appearance in The Masters at Augusta National.

The former Oklahoma amateur stroke play champion’s father Ron spent five seasons in the minor league system of the Texas Rangers baseball team and was caddying when Gooch, aged nine at the time, won the US Kids world junior title.

He had his first professional victory in 2017 on the Korn Ferry Tour and made the halfway cut on his major debut at the 2017 US Open. Qualified for Royal Liverpool by making it into the top 30 on last season’s FedEx Cup points list, but then switched to LIV Golf where he has won three times this year, most recently at Valderrama on July 2.