Andrew Johnston

Became one of the stories of Royal Troon in The Open of 2016 – and of the entire golf season.

With shouts of his nickname “Beef” greeting him onto virtually every green, the bearded Londoner lapped up the atmosphere and booked himself a place at Royal Birkdale 12 months later with his eighth place finish in what was only the third major of his career.

It lifted him into the sport’s top 100 only three months after he won the Spanish Open at Valderrama when ranked 233rd. The year also saw him come third in the Omega European Masters and then fourth in a Web.com Tour event in America to secure a place on the 2017 PGA Tour.

Runner-up in the 2018 Hero Indian Open, but then struggled and was back down to 337th in the world when he came joint fourth in the Aberdeen Standard Investments and took one of the three Open spots on offer at Royal Portrush, his most recent appearance, with winner Bernd Wiesberger and third-placed Romain Langasque already exempt. As for the nickname, it has stuck since his schooldays when he was told his hair looked like “a bit of beef”.