The first day at Royal Liverpool Golf Course at Hoylake was one for the ages. It was a great day of golf with picture-perfect weather.
Some of the best golfers on the planet struggled with the course, while some young, inexperienced guys took the course by storm. There is a three-way top at the top of the leaderboard. The biggest surprise is Christo Lamprecht.
Lighting Up the Course
The 22-year-old, former Georgia Tech golfer, is playing in his second Open Championship. Lamprecht was the 2023 Amateur Champion. He finished his round one with two bogeys and seven birdies. He also grabbed a birdie on hole 18 to put him into the clubhouse at -5.
Tommy Fleetwood was the next one into the clubhouse with a -5, 66. The 32-year-old from England has nine professional wins in his golf career but has yet to win an Open Championship. Fleetwood has done well in his career, including a T4 last season and a runner-up back in 2019. Fleetwood got hot on the back nine of the course as he went for four birdies in his final six holes.
The third and final guy to get to -5 on the day was Emiliano Grillo. The 30-year-old from Argentina has been a PGA Pro since 2011. Grillo’s best result in the Open Championship is 12th place, as he hit it both in 2016 and in 2021. Grillo was the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year back in 2015-2016. He will tee off Friday at 8:14 local time, which is 3:14 am EST.
In the Running
There is a trio of guys that finished the day at -4. A couple of unknowns in Antone Rozner and Adrian Otaegui, along with veteran Brian Harman got the job done.
Those three are in a great spot, being just a single stroke back heading into Friday.
There were then four guys that rounded out the Top 10 and were two strokes off the leaders. Those guys are veteran Stewart Cink, PGA Tour Champion Wyndham Clark, Alex Noren, Max Homa, and Shubhankar Sharma. They will start Friday’s action inside the Top 10.
Other Big Names
Anytime you get a major tournament, you want to see the progress of some of the big names in the tournament. Jordan Spieth is one of those guys.
Spieth has always been known as a great links golfer, and he was pretty consistent on Thursday, going -2 on the day. Captain America, Patrick Reed, who has been playing his rounds on the LIV Tour as of late, finished with a -1 on the day.
Other guys at -1 were Patrick Cantlay, Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele, and Scottie Scheffler.
What to Expect on Friday
Many around the game of golf expect scores to be around the same, if not a little higher, on Friday. The weather conditions were nearly perfect on Thursday, and the winds are expected to pick up a little bit on Friday.
After round 1, the cut line is set at +2. It will be interesting to see what the cut line does on Friday.
Thomas Struggles Continue
Justin Thomas continued his season-long struggles in the first round. Thomas will start Saturday at +11 and 154th place. He will miss the cut on Saturday and Sunday.
New Champion
Last season’s winner Cameron Smith and 2021 winner Collin Morikawa didn’t play great golf on Thursday.
Shane Lowry also finished around the cut line as well. Francisco Molinari was the 2018 winner, and he is currently not high in contention.
That leaves Jordan Spieth, the winner at Royal Birkdale in 2017, as the highest-positioned champion heading into Friday.
Rory Mcllroy, who won the Open Championship at this very course back in 2014, finished the day at 71, even par.
Friday Starts
The action will start at 6:35 am local time, which is 1:35 am EST on Friday.
Some notable early tee times for Friday include:
- Emilian Grillo and Dustin Johnson at 8:25 am
- Brian Harman at 8:45 am
- Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, and Justin Thomas at 9:47 am
- Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose at 9:58 am local time.
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