Royal Liverpool’s history represented on Open leaderboard

Past winners at Hoylake have included local players Harold Hilton and John Ball, the greatest amateur to play the game Bobby Jones and the trailblazing Argentinian Roberto De Vincenzo.

Tommy Fleetwood isn’t a Royal Liverpool product like Hilton and Ball, but hailing from Southport 45 minutes’ drive away he has certainly been adopted as a favourite son, while South Africa’s Christo Lamprecht won the recent Amateur Championship at nearby Hillside. Emiliano Grillo won this year as well, at Colonial where De Vincenzo claimed victory.

After day one, all three are tied for the lead at five-under-par.

Lamprecht was the first to reach the mark after heading out with countryman and Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen and Dutchman Joost Luiten.

Notable for his 6-foot-8 height, the South African made three birdies in four holes over the front nine to turn in three-under 32 and looked relatively unfazed at the top of the leaderboard over the course of a back nine where he added four more birdies against bogeys at the 11^th and 16^th to sign for an opening 66 and the clubhouse lead.

Amateur Christo Lamprecht had the galleries cheering early on Thursday. PHOTO: Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images.

“I'd probably say the first tee shot was the only bit of nerves I had all day. 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 Georgia Tech University player said.

“I'm very proud of it. I'm a little bit surprised, obviously, naturally, but I'm also – I played good golf today.”

Less surprising was Fleetwood’s presence who handled the pressure of the home crowd attention and support to aplomb after struggling off the tee in his early holes before finding his game with birdie at the par-5 5^th.

His lone bogey came at the next hole after “a great golf shot” that ended up long of the par-3 green, with Fleetwood instantly gaining the shot back at the next.

A clean back nine card with four birdies, including three in a row starting at the 14^th, pulled Fleetwood alongside Lamprecht at the top of the leaderboard with the crowd cheering his every move as he played alongside Adam Scott and Scottie Scheffler.

RIGHT: Emiliano Grillo is chasing another win at the same tournament as Argentinian legend Roberto De Vincenzo. PHOTO: Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images.

“It was great. I enjoyed the round. Like I say, once things started to flow and started to play well felt very in control of my game,” Fleetwood said. “Stayed very patient. Felt like hit the right shots at the right time, and yeah, take it day by day, shot by shot, and enjoy sort of each moment as we're going through the week.

“Special week, regardless. But yeah, felt really, really good out there.”

Grillo got his round started poorly with bogey at the difficult par-4 1^st and added to the misery with another at the 3^rd, however the 30-year-old followed Fleetwood’s lead by making his first birdie of the day at the 5^th and didn’t look back from there.

“I love it. I'm here to play as many holes as I can with the lead and just enjoy. It's one of the greatest honours in the world, and I'm up there,” Grillo said.

After closing the front nine with a birdie at the par-3 9^th, Grillo came alive on the back side with five birdies including at the new par-3 17^th that had brought others unstuck throughout the day.

Again, like at Colonial, he spoke of hoping to win the same tournament that De Vincenzo did at the same course after the round.

“Have a long way for that, but obviously it's everything,” he said when asked of the similarities. “The four majors are the things that we want the most. Everybody is here with the same goal. Everybody is here to do the same, play the best and lift the Claret Jug on Sunday.

“That's kind of the goal.”

One shot back of the leading trio are three more players chasing a first major title in Frenchman Antoine Rozner, Spain’s Adrian Otaegui and American Brian Harman at four-under, with a credentialed chasing back another shot back.

Included in the six player group at three-under are 50-year-old Open winner Stewart Cink, U.S Open champion Wyndham Clark and Max Homa who finally brought his regular PGA Tour form to a major championship with a solid opening 68.

Jordan Spieth is a further shot back after a typically rollercoaster round that included a shank out of bounds leading to a double bogey at the par-4 8^th and a bogey at the par-5 18^th, while five-time major champion Brooks Koepka lurks in the group at one-under alongside Scheffler and 11 others.

On even-par, Lucas Herbert and Min Woo Lee are the best of the Australians with Herbert falling victim to the par-3 17^th after arriving on three-under and recording a disastrous triple bogey. Pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy also opening with an even-par round of 71.

Australian major winners Scott, Jason Day and defending champion Cam Smith are next best at one-over, with debutants Haydn Barron (+3), Harrison Crowe (+5), Connor McKinney (+5), David Micheluzzi (+6) and Travis Smyth (+7) rounding out the Aussie contingent.