EurAsia Cup Preview: Meet The European Team

Andy Sullivan pushed Rory McIlroy all the way in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in 2015, but ultimately came up one stroke shy of the World Number Three. Despite settling for second, his performance capped a magnificent season, during which he won his first three European Tour titles.

Sullivan triumphed twice in as many months in Johannesburg, first capturing the South African Open Championship, where he beat Charl Schwartzel in a play-off by holing a ten-foot birdie putt after a sublime approach from the rough. Then he added the Joburg Open eight weeks later, and in October romped to a nine stroke victory in the Portugal Masters, setting the lowest total of the season at 23 under par.

Sullivan will remember 2014 for the hole-in-one at the KLM Open which won him a trip to space, and his rise to the top level of the game was equally meteoric.

He turned professional in 2011 after representing Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, where he won both his foursomes matches. At the end of that year he earned a debut campaign on the European Tour by taking the third card at the Qualifying School Final Stage, having successfully negotiated the Second Stage the week before. Sullivan was back at the Qualifying School Final Stage in 2012 after finishing 145th in the Race to Dubai, and again took the third card at the end of a steady week.

The 29-year old Englishman has won titles across the globe in a stellar amateur career, including in Argentina, Australia and at the Scottish Amateur Open Stroke Play Championship. Sullivan cites fellow Midlands golfer Lee Westwood as his chief inspiration.

Next: Chris Wood