Matteo Manassero

Matteo Manassero, the DP World Tour's youngest-ever winner, has enjoyed a fantastic comeback since seeing his world ranking tumble from 25th in 2013.

As a 16-year-old amateur he made his mark by finishing joint 13th on his Open debut at Turnberry in 2009, and went on to record a record-breaking win at the 2010 Castello Masters aged 17.

Further victories came in the next three seasons, the second of them at the Singapore Open was achieved with a play-off eagle against former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen. The third, at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, took him into the world’s top 30 just after his 20th birthday.

The sky seemed the limit but a loss of form saw him tumble all the way down to 1,805th in 2020.

The recovery started that season with a win on the Alps Tour, then two wins on the Challenge Tour followed before a fifth main DP World Tour title came his way - nearly 11 years after the last .

He then made it into the US Open – his first major for five years – and after an eight-year absence from The Open tied for 31st at Royal Troon.

By coming third at the Amgen Irish Open and joint fourth at Wentworth a week later he returned to the game’s top 100. His 12th place finish in the Race to Dubai earned him a PGA Tour card as well as his place at The 153rd Open.