Ryosuke Kinoshita

Victory in May’s Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open – part of the Qualifying Series – earned Kinoshita his second start in the Championship.

Joint sixth place in the 2020 SMBC Singapore Open was good enough for a place at Royal St George's – Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose were the top two finishers that week – but because of Covid he had to wait a year to play.

Also in 2020, he was runner-up at the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters by a stroke to Jinichiro Kozuma, who eagled the last hole, but his breakthrough on the Japan Tour came the following season at their Tour Championship and a mere three weeks later he added the Dunlop Srixon Fukushima Open, firing a closing 62 and then beating Ryuko Tokimatsu with a birdie at the first extra hole.

Reached 69th in the world early in 2022, but was down at 484th when he tied for third at April’s ISPS Handa Championship, an event co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour. Confidence duly boosted, his third victory on home soil came just four weeks later.