Sadom Kaewkanjana

Secured his first Open Championship start in brilliant fashion in January, winning the SMBC Singapore Open by three strokes.

Four places at St Andrews were up for grabs as part of The Open Qualifying Series and the then 23-year-old did not drop a shot in the two closing rounds to land his second Asian Tour title and finish runner-up to Joohyung Kim on the circuit’s Order of Merit.

His performance continued a real purple patch which saw him win twice in his home country last October, including the Thailand Open by four, and then again in November.

He failed to break 70 only once in those 12 rounds and in the same spell scored a 62 in coming second at the Singha Pattaya Open.

That run began with him 759th on the world rankings, but by the end of it he had leapt into the game’s top 200.

“This is amazing,” he said. “It has taken a lot of hard work to get here, especially over the last two years, and I hope it’s the start of a great year.”

His previous Asian Tour success was the 2019 Bangabandhu Cup, where he returned another 62.