Yuki Inamori

Played his first major at Royal Portrush in 2019 as the reigning Japan Open champion. In October he repeated that success to book a place at Royal St George’s.

They are his only two titles on his home tour. The first came in 2018 by two strokes from South African Shaun Norris and lifted him from 211st in the world to 115th. It was his sixth top-10 finish of a season that also included a tie for third at the Japan PGA Championship, where he was only one shot away from being involved in the play-off in which Toru Taniguchi beat Yoshinori Fukimoto. In regaining the national trophy in only his third tournament of 2020 he beat Hideto Tanihara by one.

Inamori first made a mark on the Japan Tour at the age of 19 when a closing 66 lifted him into joint second behind Satoshi Kodaira at the 2014 Dunlop Srixon Fukushima Open.

He had another runner-up finish at the following year’s Bridgestone Open, where he was the joint halfway leader before being overtaken by Michio Matsumura. He also shared the lead with a round to go in the 2016 Heiwa PGM Championship, but slipped to third place.