An Amateur Stands 6'8" and Sits Atop the Leaderboard Early at the British Open
HOYLAKE, England — The first feel-good story at The Open championship is courtesy of a 22-year-old South African that stands six-foot-eight and, at 220 pounds, is as thin as a rail.
Yet, for most of the morning in Thursday’s first round at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, amateur Christo Lamprecht dominated the buzz and the leaderboard, shooting a 5-under 66. The score held up nicely against the best professional golf has to offer with only England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Argentina's Emiliano Grillo.
“I'd probably say the first tee shot was the only bit of nerves I had all day,” Lamprecht said. “I just kind of walked off the first tee box after hitting my snap-hook drive and my caddie just told me, 'listen, you're playing the Open as an amateur, no need to stress.' We kind of had fun from there.”
Royal Liverpool has been a bastion of talented amateurs throughout its history, with John Bull Jr. and Harold Hilton winning a combined 12 amateurs and three Open Championships in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Lamprecht is a rising senior at Georgia Tech and his summer has already been successful as he won the British Amateur Championship last month with a 3 and 2 victory over Switzerland's Ronan Kleu to earn he spot into the 151st Open.
He took his game to another links course and put it on display against the best in the world with seven birdies in the first round, as if he was playing at his local club and pencils were not required.
“It's pretty surreal,” Lamprecht said.” “It's nice to see a lot of work behind the scenes pay off. It's something I haven't dreamt of yet, but it's pretty cool.”
When he got to high school, Lamprecht went through a significant growth spurt and was growing so fast that his swing changed seemingly every two weeks. It was all over the place for two years before it started to stabilize, and with that a maturity of his swing and his game started to come into place.
“As a 50-year-old golfer seeing a guy like him, he is pretty much like your basic nightmare, watching a guy like him coming up,” Stewart Cink said of the 22-year-old who was in front of him on Thursday. “He can hit it like 330 in the air and he hits those little shots around the green so soft, it's amazing. He's got a lot of really good potential in front of him.”
But right now, Lamprecht has Friday in his sights, at 12:53 p.m. (7:53 a.m. ET) when he tees it up for his second round.
And he seems to have it figured out.
“I've kind of changed my mindset the last year about how I approach tournaments and how I approach the game and just controlling what I can control and really just focusing—only thing I am worried about is the next tee shot tomorrow,” he said. “The rest I'm going to deal with it from there on out. I'm not remotely thinking of Sunday or anything. I am just going to go hit a good tee shot on one tomorrow.
Lamprecht showed a tremendous amount of calm, resembling a player much older and wiser, now the next question is if he can continue to show a calm and disposition that few at his age possess.
“I think I'm very hard on myself, and I think I earned my spot to be here,” he said. “I think the way I played today I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard, as of now.”
Only three amateurs have won the Open: Ball, Hilton and Bobby Jones.
Jones's win in 1930 was the second leg of the Grand Slam, by two shots over Leo Diegel and Macdonald Smith, and it was played at Royal Liverpool.
Unlike Ball, Hilton and Jones, Lamprecht will not stay an amateur, but he will not turn pro immediately no matter what happens this week. He made a promise, and he wants to keep it.
“Kind of at the start of my college career I made a promise to our head coach I was going to stay four years, and I think you're only as valuable as your word," he said. "I'm definitely planning on staying in college for the next year and planning on turning pro after that. “