Lee Hodges

Hodges' debut in the Championship comes thanks to a tie for 12th in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village on June 4.

Three places at Royal Liverpool were on offer as part of The Open Qualifying Series and he took the last of them. Nine of the players ahead of him were already exempt and of the three alongside him two also had exemptions, while fellow American David Lipsky’s world ranking of 160th was 30 lower than his own.

Hodges, a winner on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020, gave his best performance on the main circuit at last season’s American Express event, where he tied for third three strokes behind winner Hudson Swafford in a week that saw him open with a 62 and add a third-round 64.

The Alabama golfer, whose cousin Logan Stenberg is an offensive lineman for the Detroit Lions in the NFL, played his first major championship at the 2021 US Open.