Major winner Francesco Molinari heads the line-up for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, which starts at Port Royal Golf Course on Thursday.

Molinari, 42, won The Open at Carnoustie during a stellar 2018, when he also won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and won five points from five matches at the Ryder Cup, including beating Phil Mickelson in singles competition on the final day.

Formerly as high as No 5 in the world, Molinari has dropped down the rankings and now features just inside the top 500, with the Italian’s last tour win coming in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in 2019.

While Molinari last tasted victory five years ago, there are 19 players set to tee off in Bermuda who have won a PGA Tour event in the past three years, including Séamus Power and Camillo Villegas, winners of the tournament in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

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Among those recent tour winners are Canadian Nick Taylor, victorious in the Canadian Open in 2023 and the Arizona Open at Scottsdale this year, and who holds the honour of the highest-ranked golfer in the tournament at 61st in the world.

Kevin Yu, Mackenzie Hughes, Maverick McNealy, Jhonattan Vegas, Patrick Rodgers, Ryo Hitsasune, Doug Ghim and Nicolas Echevarria are the other players ranked 100 or higher in the world rankings set to travel to the island.

Bermuda will be represented in the 120-strong field by Camiko Smith, Nick Jones and Eric West.