British Open: 6-foot-8 amateur Christo Lamprecht leads the tournament
The towering amateur from South Africa cards a magnificent 5-under opening round to lead at Royal Liverpool.
It was already easy to spot 6-foot-8 amateur Christo Lamprecht on the golf course. Now it's easy to spot him on the Open Championship leaderboard. In both cases, you just keep looking up.
Lamprecht, a rising senior at Georgia Tech, crafted a magnificent 5-under round to hold the clubhouse lead early Thursday. The South African played his way into the tournament by winning the Amateur Championship and immediately proved he belonged with his seven-birdie, two-bogey performance.
"I'm very hard on myself, and I think I earned my spot to be here," he said after the round. "I think the way I played today I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard, as of now. It's not a cocky thing to say. I just personally think I believe in myself, and I guess stepping on to the first tee box if you're a professional or a competitor, you should be believing that you should be the best standing there."
The highlight: this magnificent off-the-green birdie ...
What a shot. What a day for Christo Lamprecht. pic.twitter.com/RdWODgk8Dl
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2023
Right behind Lamprecht on the early leaderboard: 50-year-old Stewart Cink, who's a fellow Georgia Tech golf veteran. Cink won one of the more heartbreaking — for everyone else — majors in golf history when he outlasted Tom Watson at the Open Championship in 2009.
"He's got — and I'm sure it's no surprise — pretty huge power because he's a giant man, and a lot of club head speed," Cink said. "His short game, too. He's got really nice hands and a soft touch around the greens with the little shots. 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."
