Oliver Wilson

Earned himself a return to The Open after a four-year gap with a joint second place in the Betfred British Masters at The Belfry on July 2.

Three Hoylake spots were on offer as part of The Open Qualifying Series and Wilson needed to birdie the 18th – one of the hardest finishing holes in British golf – to join winner Daniel Hillier and American Gunner Wiebe.

He did so from a lowly 392nd in the world and 188th on this season’s DP World Tour rankings, having failed to produce a top-20 finish since his victory in Denmark last September.

Wilson was part of the Ryder Cup team at Valhalla in 2008, but lost his European Tour card four years later and was ranked 792nd in the world when, following seven runner-up finishes, his long wait for a title ended at the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, where he won by one from Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Richie Ramsay. He even fell out of the game’s top 2,000 after that, but then came two wins on the European Challenge Tour.

Fifteen years ago he came from four down in partnership with Henrik Stenson to beat Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim in a Ryder Cup where he created history as the first European player to qualify without first winning a tournament.