Rory McIlroy

Top-scorer for Europe as they regained the Ryder Cup in October and, a month later, McIlroy was crowned DP World Tour No.1 for the fifth time.

Winner of four majors before the age of 26, including The 143rd Open at Royal Liverpool, he has since recorded five top-six finishes in the last seven Championships. He looked like he would end a 10-year wait for a fifth major at the recent US Open, only to be pipped by Bryson DeChambeau.

McIlroy was an eight-shot winner of both the 2011 US Open and 2012 PGA Championship, the first of those making him at 22 the youngest holder of the trophy since Bobby Jones in 1923.

At 17 he was European amateur champion, at 18 leading amateur at The Open and in the 2010 Championship at St Andrews, he equalled the then-major record of 63. He has had nine spells as world No.1 and has been part of seven Ryder Cup sides.

His haul includes three World Golf Championships and three Tour Championships. In 2022, he did the double of FedEx Cup and DP World Tour titles and only Scottie Scheffler denied him the Masters crown he craves to become just the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam following Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Captured a record fourth Dubai Desert Classic title in January and by mid-May had added two more PGA Tour victories – one in partnership with Shane Lowry – to take his haul there to 26.