It was quite an opening day at the Open. Royal Liverpool Golf Course at Hoylake saw an amateur steal the show to start the tournament.
Christo Lamprecht, a 22-year-old from South Africa, shot a five-under 66 to head into the clubhouse as the leader. The former Georgia Tech golfer was the 2023 Amateur Champion, which allowed him entry into the Open Championship.
Lamprecht had just two bogeys on the deal and came away with seven birdies, including one to finish his round on hole 18. He will tee off Friday at 12:53 pm local time, which is 7:53 am Eastern Time.
A little later, Tommy Fleetwood and Emiliano Grillo both recorded a -5, 66 as well and are the co-leaders with Lambrecht.
Veteran Shines
Another major story early in the round was Stewart Cink. When he went into the clubhouse, he was in second place all alone at -3. Cink is 50 years old but is the 2009 winner of the Open Championship.
Cink looked good all morning, nailing 15 pars and three birdies on the day. Cink will look to repeat his performance Friday afternoon at Royal Liverpool Golf Course in an effort to make the cut and play the weekend.
Home Grown
The third storyline from the morning was Matthew Jordan. Jordan is a 27-year-old that grew up playing the course as a kid. Jordan has one professional win under his belt, and that came back in 2019 at the Italian Challenge Open.
This is the second time Jordan has played in a major championship, as he failed to make the cut at the Open a season ago. Jordan was the first player in the tournament to record a birdie and was the leader for a large chunk of the morning.
Veterans Struggle
A couple of veterans struggled and basically have put themselves in a position where they are not going to come back and make the cut. Justin Thomas was one of those, as he finished +7 on the opening day of the Open.
Justin Rose is another guy that struggled big time, as he went with a 73, +3, along with Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm. Tony Finau and Gary Woodland are on the current cut line at +2.
Leaderboard After Day 1
Here is the up-to-date leaderboard after the first round of the Open.
- T1. Christo Lamprecht -5
- T1. Tommy Fleetwood -5
- T1. Emiliano Grillo -5
- T4. Antonie Rozner -4
- T4. Adrian Otaegui -4
- T4. Brian Harman -4
- T7. Stewart Cink -3
- T7. Wyndham Clark -3
- T7. Alex Noran -3
- T7. Max Homa -3
- T7. Shubhankar Sharma -3
- T12. Matthew Jordan -2
- T12. Jordan Spieth -2
- T12. Si Woo Kim -2
- T12. Alexander Bjork -2
- T12 Guido Migliozzi -2
- T12 Michael Stewart -2
The action on Friday starts at 11:35 pm EST. The first three out of the gate on Friday include Rasmus Hojgaard, Matthew Southgate, and Alex Fitzpatrick. The final pairing on Friday will go at 11:16 am EST. That will include Yannik Paul, Sami Valimaki, and Laurie Canter.
