Viktor Hovland

Joint 12th on his debut at Royal St George's, Viktor Hovland shared the lead with Rory McIlroy with a round to go at St Andrews last July but both were overtaken by Cameron Smith’s spectacular 64 and Hovland slipped to fourth.

That was his best major finish until May’s PGA Championship, where he tied for second with Scottie Scheffler behind Brooks Koepka.

Hovland swiftly put that disappointment behind him by winning the Memorial Tournament in June after a play-off with Denny McCarthy.

That victory set the tone for a stunning 2023, which also brought success in the BMW Championship and Tour Championship in August, the latter win ensuring Hovland became the FedEx Cup champion for the first time.

After becoming the first Norwegian to win the US Amateur title in 2018, he was low amateur in finishing joint 32nd at the following year’s Masters – which made him No.1 on the amateur world rankings.

Hovland then improved 20 spots on that in the US Open at Pebble Beach two months later with a four under par total of 280 which broke the championship record for an amateur, set by Jack Nicklaus in 1960, by two strokes.

He decided to turn professional rather than travel to The Open at Royal Portrush and tasted his first success at the Puerto Rico Open, then added the first of two successive wins at the Mayakoba Classic.

He opened his DP World Tour account at the 2021 BMW International Open and after climbing into the world’s top 10 impressed again on his Ryder Cup debut, halving his singles against then-Open champion Collin Morikawa, and has since added back-to-back Hero World Challenge titles and last season’s Dubai Desert Classic, which took him to a career-high third in the world.