Sahith Theegala

At the start of 2021 Sahith Theegala was not even in the world’s top 1,200, but he earned an Open debut the following year after a remarkable surge up the rankings.

Competing mostly on the Korn Ferry Tour first, the Californian climbed into the leading 450 and on graduating to the PGA Tour the ascent has continued. He became first reserve for The 150th Open at St Andrews before being called into the field a week before the event when Daniel Berger withdrew through injury.

His maiden tour success came at the 2023 Fortinet Championship and he then rose up the world rankings after runner-up finishes at The Sentry in Hawaii and RBC Heritage, where he was the closest challenger to Scottie Scheffler.

He was also joint second in 2022 at both the Travelers Championship and RSM Classic, double-bogeying the final hole when one ahead at the first of those.

Theegala qualified for a Presidents Cup debut in September six years after he was a teammate of Collin Morikawa at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup college match in France, where the European side included Viktor Hovland.

His best major finish is ninth at the 2023 Masters.