Alex Fitzpatrick

An Open debut for the younger brother of last year’s US Open champion Matt. Having watched that triumph from outside the ropes, Alex made it to Royal Liverpool by finishing in a share of fourth place on July 4 in the 36-hole Final Qualifying event at West Lancashire, where there were five places up for grabs in a field of 72.

In 2018 he reached the final of the Spanish International Amateur and was a quarter-finalist at the US Amateur, the event won by Matt five years earlier.

Alex played college golf at Wake Forest University, represented England when they were silver medallists at the 2019 European team championship, finishing joint fourth individually, and then played in the 2019 and 2021 Walker Cup matches, the first of them at Hoylake.

He reached fourth on the world rankings before deciding to follow Matt into the professional ranks. Alex went into Final Qualifying 632nd on the world rankings, with a best finish this year of joint third at the European Challenge Tour’s B-NL Trophy.