Marcel Siem

Siem has his 44th birthday at the start of Open week and it falls only 15 days after he registered his sixth victory on the DP World Tour, beating Tom McKibbin in the Italian Open with a birdie on the final hole and then another when they went into a sudden death play-off.

He enjoyed his best-ever finish in the Championship when he tied for 15th at Royal St George's in 2021.

The German was a four-time winner on the DP World Tour then and in February 2023 he ended a wait of nearly eight-and-a-half years for his fifth success at the Hero Indian Open.

Siem went on to finish 24th on the Race to Dubai ranking list, his best performance since he was seventh in 2014 and enough to book his place at Royal Troon.

There was also an eight-year gap between his maiden title at the 2004 Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa and the 2012 French Open, where he beat Francesco Molinari by one.

In between, he partnered Bernhard Langer as Germany won the World Cup following a play-off with Scots Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren, then added the 2013 Hassan Trophy and BMW Masters in 2014, the year he gave his best major performance with a tie for 12th at the US Open.