HOYLAKE, LIVERPOOL: A South African amateur and an experienced Englishman searching for his maiden Major, were in shared lead with half the field yet to finish the first day of the 151st Open Championship. The co-leaders, 22-year-old six-foot-eight debutant at the Open Christo Lamprecht and the unruly, long-haired Tommy Fleetwood, 32, a former European Tour player of the Year in 2017, have a Southport connection, at least this week.
Fleetwood was born in Southport and five weeks ago, Lamprecht was the last man standing at Hillside Golf Club at Southport, where he won The Amateur Championships, which earned him spots into the 2023 Open, the 2024 Masters and the 2024 US Open. The Amateur Championship, sometimes called the British Amateurs, was counted as one of the Majors before the World War II.
Lamprecht, a senior at Georgia Tech in the US, compiled an impressive 5-under 66 with seven birdies against two bogeys and later Fleetwood, had six birdies, three of them in a row from the 14th to the 16th, against one bogey on the sixth for his 66.
India's lone campaigner this week, Shubhankar Sharma, who turns 27 on Friday, started late in the afternoon in the third last group of the day. After missing gains on the first two holes, where his birdie putts grazed past the hole, Sharma finally landed a birdie on the fourth. He was 2-under after five holes.
Antoine Rozner, winner of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in December 2022, and bidding for a Ryder Cup place, was sole third with a card of 67.
Stewart Cink, who won the 2009 Open after a legendary playoff at Turnberry, is also from Georgia Tech. He turned 50 this year and shuttles between the Champions Tour (for over 50s) and the PGA Tour. He shot 68 as did Wyndham Clark, the latest Major winner at the 2023 US Open, to be tied fourth.
Jordan Spieth, despite a closing bogey, and Englishman Matthew Jordan were among those one behind with 2-under 69 each.
The story of the day was Lamprecht who admitted to nervousness, but once that was behind him, he showed champion stuff.
Lamprecht birdied the third, fifth, sixth and 10th holes to reach 4 under par and then had bogeys on the back nine on 11th and the 16th. He neutralised them with a chip-in birdie on 14 and a routine birdie at the par-5 15th. Then came a signature long drive to 353 yards at the par-5 18th and it set him up for an eagle possibility by reaching the green in two. But he settled with an easy two-putt birdie to get to 5 under.
Lamprecht also played tennis as a youngster before his father, also named Christo, put him into golf. When the younger Christo got into Georgia Tech, he began his classes in the virtual mode as he could not travel to US due to visa issues during the Covid period. He then had a fine record in college golf.
Lamprecht has benefitted a great deal from his South African colleagues, who are a close-knit team on the Tour.
The South Africans are known to hang around together. Over the last few days, he played with two South African Major champions - Louis Oosthuizen (2010 Open) and Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters) - and Branden Grace, who at the 2017 Open in Birkdale became the first man to shoot 62 in a Major during his third round.
All that knowledge was supplemented by the legacy of South African golf. South Africans have won 22 Majors in all and ten of them have come at the Open. Four South Africans have between them won the Open ten times.
