It was already easy to spot the 8-foot 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, produced a remarkable 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 and two-putt performance.
“I’m very hard on myself and I think I earned my place to be here,” he said after the round. “I think the way I played today, I earned being at the top of the leaderboard right now. If you’re a pro or a competitor, you have to believe that you have to be the best out there.”
Highlights: this gorgeous off-green bird …
Right behind Lamprecht on the early leaderboard: 50-year-old Stewart Cink, who is a fellow Georgia Tech golf veteran. Cink won one of the most shocking titles – to everyone else – in golf history when he edged out Tom Watson in the 2009 Open Championship.
“He has — and I’m sure it’s no surprise — quite a lot of power because he’s a huge man with a lot of head speed,” Cink said. “His short game, too. He’s got really nice hands and a soft touch around the green with the little shots. As a 50-year-old golfer watching a guy like him, he’s pretty much your basic nightmare, seeing a boy like him approaching.”
