Seamus Power

On the same day that Collin Morikawa became Open champion at Royal St George's last July, Power claimed his first PGA Tour crown at the Barbasol Championship. beating JT Poston at the sixth hole of a sudden death play-off.

The County Waterford-born player, who went to college at East Tennessee State University and stayed on in the United States afterwards, added the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October and will also remember 2022 for the fact that in the first three majors of his career he was 27th at The Masters, ninth in the PGA Championship and 12th at the US Open.

He returns to The Open now thanks to retaining his place in the game’s top 50.

Little over two years ago he was not even in the leading 400. Then came a tie for fourth in the RSM Classic, joint third at the Sony Open in Hawaii and a quarter-final appearance at the WGC-Dell Match Play in March after fine wins over Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im and Tyrrell Hatton, before he lost to eventual winner Scottie Scheffler.

Competed for Ireland along with Padraig Harrington at the 2016 Olympics