By DOUG FERGUSON The Associated Press
HOYLAKE, England — The British Open showed again Thursday that even after 163 years, golf’s oldest championship can still deliver a few surprises.
It started with Christo Lamprecht, the South African amateur as tall as a flag stick and almost as thin, making three birdies over his last six holes and posting a 5-under-par 66 to become the first amateur in 12 years to share the 18-hole lead at the Open.
Curiosity about the 22-year-old amateur turned to glee at the site of local hero, Tommy Fleetwood, running off three straight birdies on the back nine at Royal Liverpool to join him atop the leaderboard. Emiliano Grillo of Argentina became the third to post 66 by holing a birdie putt from 50 feet on the last hole.
Not to be overlooked was Jordan Spieth hitting a shank; Rory McIlroy missing a 3-foot putt; Justin Thomas going bunker-to-bunker-to-rough – each shot further away from the flag than the previous one – in making a nine on the 18th hole to post his highest round in a major at 82.
McIlroy, trying desperately to end his nine-year drought in the majors, was happy to get away with a 71. He risked the round getting away from him until making up for that wee miss on the eighth hole with a 40-foot birdie on the 14th that sparked him.
And then it almost got away from him in the end – just like the bunkers on the 18th ruined so many other rounds – when he left one in the pot bunker and expertly got out the second time and made a 10-foot par.
Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked player, got around in 70 in the morning before the breeze turned into a stiff wind.
Masters champion Jon Rahm reached a point where he felt nothing was going his way, and it wasn’t. He hit what he thought was a good shot into the 18th only for it to find a bunker, forcing him to play back toward the fairway and turning a birdie chance into bogey. Rahm opened with a 74.
“It does ask a lot of questions, this golf course,” an exasperated Shane Lowry said after a 72.
What it left behind after the longest day – 15 hours of golf – were few answers.
Fleetwood raised hopes of becoming the first English winner of a British Open in England since Tony Jacklin in 1969. He kept his own hopes measured, fully aware of gallery support for the long-haired lad raised about an hour up the coast.
“First day, so this was a pretty good one,” Fleetwood said. “All I want to do is keep working hard keep playing, and keep putting myself in position. And obviously, it’ll be my turn soon.”
The biggest surprise to everyone but the 6-foot-8 Lamprecht was seeing an amateur atop the leaderboard at the final major of the year. He qualified by winning the British Amateur at Hillside, a links course just north of Liverpool on the Lancashire coast.
“The first tee shot was the only bit of nerves I had all day,” said Lamprecht, an All-American at Georgia Tech. “Yeah, 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.”
The last amateur to share the 18-hole lead at the Open was Tom Lewis at Royal St. George’s in 2011. Irish amateur Paul Dunne shared the 54-hole lead at St. Andrews in 2015.
Lamprecht appreciates it’s unusual for an amateur to hold his own against the pros, at a major championship no less. But that’s where it ends.
“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. It’s not a cocky thing to say. I just personally think I believe in myself, and I guess stepping onto the first tee box … you should be believing that you should be the best standing there.”
Brian Harman, Adrian Otaegui of Spain and Antoine Rozner of France each birdied the 18th and were at 67. The group at 68 included U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, 50-year-old former British Open champion Stewart Cink and Valencia product Max Homa.
Spieth was at 69, a strong start considering the shank he hit from tall grass and the golf ball above his feet on the eighth hole. The ball was declared lost and he made double bogey.
“I’ve never hit one before, so it took me a couple holes to feel like I got my feet back under me,” Spieth said. He did just that until finding a pot bunker off the tee and finished with a bogey.
The bunkers were frightening, with players unsure if the ball would settle in the middle or be up against the vetted, sodden walls. Either way, it was about as penal as a water hazard.
“That’s why they’re there,” Rahm said. “You have to try to avoid them. Plenty of people did a good job and shot a low score today. It’s very difficult to avoid them all.”
The bunkers around the 18th were particularly diabolical. There were 19 scores of double bogey or worse on the closing hole on Thursday. The last time at Royal Liverpool in 2014, there were 26 doubles or worse the entire tournament.
Thirty-one players managed to break par, and players like McIlroy at even par hardly shot themselves out of the championship.
“I needed to stay patient out there. It wasn’t the easiest of days,” McIlroy said. “But I’m still right in there.”
McIlroy won the last time at Royal Liverpool, opening with rounds of 66-66 and going on to a wire-to-wire win at 17-under par. Tiger Woods won in Hoylake in 2006 at 18 under.
This is a different Royal Liverpool, slightly lengthened and with a new par-3 17th hole that wreaked havoc for some – Phil Mickelson made double bogey, Lucas Herbert a triple – but this day was all about the bunkers.
“It’s the most well-bunkered golf course that we play,” Lowry said. “They’re everywhere, and they’re very penal.”
LAMPRECHT GRABS SPOTLIGHT
Crouching over the ball with his legs wide apart, Lamprecht crunched his last drive of the day into the fairway and more than 350 yards.
“Look at the size of him,” was one of the muffled remarks from outside the ropes along the 18th fairway as the 22-year-old South African loped after his ball, his golf pants not long enough to cover his socks.
Lamprecht’s first round at a British Open was one this amateur, and those watching him, won’t quickly forget.
One of the tallest players ever to compete in the Open, he was leading by three strokes. He wound up shooting 5-under 66 for his three-way share of the lead.
The last amateur to be in first place after the opening round of an Open was Tom Lewis, who shared the lead with Thomas Bjorn at Royal St. George’s in 2011.
So, did it all come as a surprise to Lamprecht, a hard-to-miss player who was certainly turning heads at Hoylake?
“I mean, as an amateur, yes, it is,” said Lamprecht, who was considered among the top college players in the U.S. for the last two years. “But in my own head, no, it’s not. I’m very hard on myself, and I earned my spot to be here.”
Lamprecht is growing fond of this part of the world.
This month, he won the British Amateur at Hillside, a course an hour up the coast along the Irish Sea, to qualify for the Open for the first time.
Now, he is leading most of the world’s best players on the biggest stage in golf. He even beat playing partner and compatriot Louis Oosthuizen by eight shots and that meant a lot to Lamprecht, who came through Oosthuizen’s foundation in South Africa.
“Having someone that I know very well and is a ginormous mentor for me, that I’ve played previously with, kind of helped me feel a little bit more at home and at ease,” Lamprecht said of the 2010 Open champion.
“He’s an amazing support, and he was supporting me the whole way through.”
Lamprecht went out in the eighth group of the day and made three birdies in a four-hole stretch from No. 3 – including a putt from 25 feet after a 332-yard drive at the third – to take the lead.
He chipped in from 40 yards for birdie at No. 14 and a short birdie putt at the par-5 15th gave him that three-shot lead. He gave one back at No. 16 before two-putting for birdie at the par-5 last hole, which most players failed to reach in two on Thursday.
Lamprecht said his stock drive goes about 325 yards and that he can get to a 340-yard carry, the kind of length that was impressing another big hitter, Bryson DeChambeau, on the range this week.
Lamprecht was taking plenty off his drives in his first round, he said, because of the roll on the fairways on a beautiful morning at Hoylake.
“Hitting it far is not what I think golf is all about,” he said. “I think links golf is a true test of golf and it’s the way golf is supposed to be played.”
Oosthuizen was impressed with what he saw from Lamprecht, especially his composure in the glare of being the Open leader for much of the round. It also shines a positive light on his foundation.
“He’s got a great demeanor. Great kid,” Oosthuizen said. “I mean, he’s very patient and he’s got game.”
“The length he hits off the tee,” he added, “there are a lot of bunkers not in play which is a big advantage.”
Lamprecht’s size runs in the family. His father was 6-foot-4 and the shortest of the last five generations, with his great grandfather about 7-foot.
He said that whatever happens this week, he’ll stay on for his final year at college and then turn pro.
“At the start of my college career, I made a promise to our head coach I was going to stay four years,” he said, “and I think you’re only as valuable as your word.”
FOWLER, THOMAS AMONG MANY WHO STRUGGLE WITH 18TH
For all the concern over the new par-3 17th at Royal Liverpool, the real headache was No. 18.
The par-5 finishing hole featuring a rare internal out-of-bounds running the entire right side and five bunkers surrounding the front of the green brought some of the world’s best players to their knees on Thursday.
Literally in the case of McIlroy.
The tournament favorite’s first round ended with the improbable sight of him standing with his right leg inside a bunker and his left knee on the downward slope beside it, before he splashed out to rescue par in his level-par 71. Moments earlier, up against the face of the bunker, he’d failed to hit the ball out sideways.
Justin Thomas could only dream of making par.
The two-time major champion drove out-of-bounds and later sent his ball from one greenside bunker to another, before blasting out through the green and winding up making nine for an 11-over 82 – his highest round in a major.
Taichi Kho of Hong Kong somehow fared even worse.
He was coming off his first – and only – birdie of the round and drove it well enough on the 18th that he could go for the green.
And then the troubles began.
Kho left his first shot in the bunker left of the green. And then another. He finally blasted out sideways into high grass, only for his next shot to go back into the same bunker. Kho blasted that one out sideways toward the native grass. His eighth shot found the green, and he two-putted from 10 feet.
That added up to a 10, giving him a round-high 83.
The 18th was where Rickie Fowler ruined his good round with a triple bogey, giving him a 72. Ryan Fox ended his round of 78 with a triple, too, the same score at the hole made by Phil Mickelson and Jorge Campillo.
In 2014 when the Open was last staged at Royal Liverpool, there were 26 scores of double or worse over four rounds. In the first round alone this year, there were 19.
The hole is playing 50 yards longer – at 599 – this time and the out-of-bounds marker has been moved about 20 yards closer to the fairway. A white line runs virtually the length of the fairway, bringing OB into play for the first and second shots, then around and along the right of the fairway on No. 3. Out-of-bounds is also a factor on No. 4, though not quite to the fairway edge.
Inside the white lines are hospitality areas and merchandise tents at this British Open. Typically, that piece of land is used by the club as a practice range.
Brooks Koepka was asked ahead of the Open about the internal OB.
“It’s fine,” he said. “Just don’t hit it over there (and) you won’t have a problem, right?”
Many will have a different view after what transpired in the first round. The bunkers proved almost as penal as the OB.
“They’re proper penalty structures for the most part,” said Rahm, who had to blast out sideways from the greenside sand on No. 18 and made a bogey for a 74.
McIlroy agreed.
“It’s just when you hit it into these bunkers, you’re sort of riding your luck at that point and hoping it’s not up against one of those riveted faces,” he said. “Yeah, Jon and I didn’t have much of a shot with our thirds, so then you’re just hoping to make par somehow and get out of there.”
Thomas appears certain to miss the cut barring a big turnaround, and that has big consequences.
He currently is No. 75 in the FedEx Cup and would miss the postseason unless he chooses to add the 3M Open next week in Minnesota or the Wyndham Championship after that.
And if he doesn’t make the FedEx Cup playoffs, Thomas would have no more opportunities to play or earn Ryder Cup points. He is No. 13 in the Ryder Cup standings, and only the top six Americans automatically qualify. The cutoff is the second FedEx Cup playoff event.
CINK THINKS HE CAN WIN AT 50
Stewart Cink wouldn’t seem to have a lot going for him at this British Open, least of all the fact he turned 50 two months ago and is eligible for the PGA Tour Champions.
Throw in the fact his flight from Atlanta was delayed by one day and he didn’t see Royal Liverpool until Tuesday after a long flight. Or the fact he only has two top-10 finishes in his 23 previous times playing the British Open.
One of those, of course, was a victory at Turnberry in 2009. That has not been forgotten by Cink, who played bogey-free Thursday for a 3-under 68 that left him two shots behind the leaders.
“Experience matters here probably as much as anywhere else,” Cink said.
Golf has been trending younger than ever, especially in the majors. Eight of the last nine winners were in their 20s, the exception being Brooks Koepka – all of 33 – winning the PGA Championship this year at Oak Hill.
Cink doesn’t see it that way, even though he has dabbled on the 50-and-over PGA Tour Champions – he played a senior major last week in Ohio – and might spend more time there next year. It was only two years ago that he won the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head.
“I’m not that different of a golfer than I was then,” he said. “I have no doubts I can win this. It’s going to take a lot. It’s going to take some really, really exceptional play on my behalf. But it’s in there.”
The oldest British Open champion was Old Tom Morris, who was 46 when he won in 1867. Cink was quick to refer to Phil Mickelson winning the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island two years ago when he was 50.
“That was probably a more difficult course than this,” Cink said. “Watching him win that, it didn’t really surprise anybody. He’s been so good for so long.”
And there was the matter of his lone major, not so much that he won, but whom he beat in a playoff – Tom Watson, who was 59 at Turnberry.
“I’m still way younger than he was then,” Cink said.
Still, it will take a lot of work, and he knows that.
Thursday was a day for scoring, and Cink did his part by avoiding the troublesome bunkers at Royal Liverpool except for one, and that time the ball was in the middle and left him a reasonable shot to get out.
At his side was his wife, Lisa, a cancer survivor who is caddying for him this week. Cink said she is as much a therapist as a caddie, maybe not the best in helping decide whether a shot should be a 4-iron or a 5-iron but able to keep his head in the right place.
And after a strong start, his confidence was starting to soar.
“It hasn’t been that long since I won, so I know that I can still get up in the mix and give myself a chance to win,” he said. “The key to winning out here in this game, you’re not going to wrestle the bull to the ground very often. You’re going to just need to get yourself in position enough times where the winning happens.
“Sometimes it happens; sometimes it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter who you are,” he said. “The greatest thing about Tiger was he put himself in position to win a whole lot of times, and it happened for him a lot of times. I want to get myself in the mix to have a chance to win on the last round, last nine holes.”
BAD START, BAD FINISH
Seungsu Han had a rough start to the British Open with a bogey, double bogey and triple bogey after four holes at Royal Liverpool.
Even tougher was the finish.
After being 6 over through four holes, Han made no bogeys and four birdies over the next 13 holes, some of the best golf played in the afternoon. He got his score back down to 2 over.
And then he hit his tee shot on the 18th out-of-bounds. He hit his next drive into a pot bunker and could only blast out. His fifth went left toward the bleachers.
He finished with a triple bogey. All that work, and he shot 77,
DIVOTS
Fleetwood now has 11 rounds of 66 in the majors dating to 2017, tied for second on the list with Jordan Spieth. Brooks Koepka leads with 14 rounds at 66 or lower. … Joaquin Niemann, who is not likely to have exempt status in the majors next year, opened with a 78. … Homa is in a tie for seventh after his 68, which is his best position after any round of a major in his career.
AP Sports Writer Steve Douglas contributed to this report.
