Amateur winning Open is tall order but 6ft 8in Christo Lamprecht off to strong start

South African amateur Christo Lamprecht in action during the first round of the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool. Picture: Tom Russo/The Scotsman.

It’s a tall order for an amateur to win a major these days. But, at 6ft 8in, Christo Lamprecht could just be the man for the job.

Playing in the same group as fellow South African and 2010 winner Louis Oosthuizen, the 22-year-old golfing giant – he’s the same height as Gordon Sherry, who played in this event in 1995 – made a stunning start in the 151st Open as he signed for a five-under-par 66 at Royal Liverpool.

It was the lowest first-round score by an amateur in a major since Tom Lewis carded a 65 in this event in 2011 at Royal St George’s while the sparkling effort was also the first in the 60s at the Hoylake venue by an amateur.

“Yeah, it's pretty surreal,” said Lamprecht of seeing his name at the top of the leaderboard. “It's nice to see a lot of work behind the scenes pay off. It's pretty cool.”

Though certainly not the only one to do it, the George man’s opening tee shot was closer to finding the adjacent 18th fairway than the first one. “I'd probably say the first tee shot was the only bit of nerves I had all day,” he said.

“Yeah, I just kind of walked off the first tee box after hitting my snap hook drive, and my caddie (the assistant coach at Georgia Tech) told me, ‘listen, you're playing The Open as an amateur; no need to stress’. We kind of had fun from there.”

The highlights of his round included a chip in from 40 yards at the par-4 14th for one of seven birdies. Even big-hitting 2010 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was impressed by Lamprecht’s average ball speed of 192 mph as they hit balls alongside each other on the practice area on Wednesday.

“I stock it out driver about 320, 325 yards,” he said. “I can get it to like 340 carry, but I don't want to. Not in this weather. Not in links golf. It rolls far enough, so I kind of keep it in front of me.”

He’s among six amateurs teeing up in the season’s final major, having secured his spot through winning the R&A Amateur Championship about 20 miles to the north of here at Hillside. “At Hillside, a lot of the bunkers were about 300 yards, so I could comfortably carry a lot of them, and that gave me a huge advantage,” he said. “Out here the bunkers are placed a lot better.”

Oosthuizen did a good job of keeping out of the bunkers on the Old Course when he got his hands on the Claret Jug at St Andrews. “I think that helped a lot to my score today,” said Lamprecht of being in the same group as his compatriot. "I think having someone that I know very well and is a ginormous mentor for me helped me feel a little bit more at home and at ease. I thought they rigged it, but I loved it.”

Height runs in the family. “Yeah, very much,” he replied to being asked if his parents were tall. My dad is 6'4" and he's the shortest of the last five generations. My grandfather was like 6'8" and great grandfather like 7'. It runs in the family, definitely.”