THE LEADERS

Tommy Fleetwood, Emiliano Grillo and amateur Christo Lamprecht took advantage of Royal Liverpool Golf Club's softer conditions Thursday with a trio of 5-under 66s.

Fleetwood was easy to find on the grounds of Hoylake – just follow the massive crowds. A native of the nearby town of Southport, Fleetwood has the blessing and curse of being the hometown favorite this week. The gallery only grew as Fleetwood rose up the leaderboard.

He did so riding a hot putter, carding six birdies to just one bogey. He played his back nine in 4 under, making putts of 25, 10 and 26 feet. That 26-footer on the 16th hole capped off three consecutive birdies for the Englishman, whose last major round was a 63 in the final round of the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

Where does this first round rank among some of his most enjoyable?

“It’s up there,” he said.

“It's always going to be a great time, having the support like that. But on top of it playing a great round it does feel really good.”

Royal Liverpool was the site of Fleetwood’s first major championship appearance in 2014. He missed the cut that week. He’s on pace to do much better this time around.

And he shares the leaderboard with Lamprecht, who, like Fleetwood in 2014, is making his major championship debut.

At 6-foot-8, 220 pounds, 22-year-old Lamprecht could easily be mistaken for a member of the Georgia Tech basketball team. Instead a member of the Yellow Jackets’ golf team, the incoming college senior put on a dazzling first-round display, dunking chip shots, draining putts and bombing long-range drives reminiscent of a lethal 3-point shooter.

“It's pretty surreal,” Lambrecht said of seeing his name atop the leaderboard. “It's nice to see a lot of work behind the scenes pay off. It's something I haven't dreamt of yet, but it's pretty cool.”

Currently No. 3 in the world amateur golf rankings, Lamprecht is in The Open via his victory at The Amateur Championship at nearby Hillside Golf Club last month. The South African looked plenty comfortable at Royal Liverpool, carding seven birdies and two bogeys. Touching ball speeds close to 200 mph, Lamprecht fully capitalized on his distance advantage with birdies at all three par 5s.

He showed off other parts of his game too, converting on a 25-foot putt on the second hole for his first birdie of the day. On the 204-yard par-3 sixth, Lamprecht stuck his approach within four feet for another birdie. Then on the par-4 14th, after leaving his approach shot 40 yards short, he chipped in. As he finished his round, Lamprecht ranked first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, second in SG: Approach and 12th in SG: Putting.

Is he surprised to be in this spot?

“I mean, as an amateur, yes, it is. But in my own head, no, it's not,” he said. “I think I'm very hard on myself, and I think I earned my spot to be here. I think the way I played today I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard.”

Then there’s Grillo, who teed off much later in the day and dealt with windier conditions to shoot 5 under. A winner earlier this year at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Grillo played his final 14 holes to 7-under par at Royal Liverpool to offset a pair of early bogeys. His final birdie of the day came courtesy of a 51-footer on the par-5 18th. Grillo hit 15 of 18 greens, second most in the field.

“This is what I'm here for. 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 honors in the world, and I'm up there,” Grillo said.

Grillo’s best two finishes in a major have both come at the Open Championship. He finished T12 in 2016 and T12 in 2021.

STORYLINES

Rory and Scottie lurking, Rahm tumbles late: Their names aren’t on the first page of the leaderboard, but their presence will be felt nonetheless. While it’s been customary to see one or more of the game’s big three – Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy – at or near the top of the leaderboard virtually every round on TOUR over the last month, all three struggled in stretches during Thursday’s first round. None of them shot their way out of the tournament, although some did a better job of limiting their errors than others.

Scheffler’s 1-under round of 70 was the best of the bunch. The 27-year-old tallied four birdies and three bogeys in an up-and-down round with his putter. He made a 30-footer for birdie on his second hole but later missed par putts of 3 and 4 feet. But as has been the story over the last several months, Scheffler’s ball-striking steadied him.

McIlroy, meanwhile, stood on the 14th tee at 2 over before carding two birdies and a miraculous par on the 18th to shoot 71. The 34-year-old found himself up against the front of a deep pot bunker greenside of the last hole. His first attempt to go outside sideways was unsuccessful but it did give him room to go right at the hole. He hit his second bunker shot to 10 feet and made the putt to save par.

“When you hit it into these bunkers, you're sort of riding your luck at that point and hoping it's not up against one of those revetted faces,” McIlroy said. “Being 2 over through 12 and getting it back to even par, I was pretty happy with that.”

Rahm went the other direction. Even-par through 11 holes, the Spaniard made three bogeys coming into the clubhouse, including one on the 18th. Like McIlroy, Rahm found himself up against the rivet of the bunker. He was forced to pitch backwards and was unable to get up and down for his par.

“You have to try to avoid (the bunkers),” Rahm said after a 3-over 74 left him outside the projected cut line. “Plenty of people did a good job and shot a low score today. It's very difficult to avoid them all … From what I've seen, it's a little bit more difficult than it's been in the past, but clearly still scoreable, so hopefully I can take advantage of it.”

Homa's major record 'sucks' – but not Thursday: Max Homa is without a top-10 finish in 16 career major starts, and with each passing major, the questions get louder. Does he have what it takes to contend at the game’s biggest events?

Homa isn’t immune to the speculation.

“Everybody knows my major record sucks,” said Homa, world No. 8 and a six-time TOUR winner. “I think I’m not myself when I play them. Then I go to regular TOUR events, and I feel like I free up and I play great. I’m a lot more consistent. Crazy things don’t seem to happen.

“Today felt more like that.”

It was a sharp moment of honesty for Homa, who delivered a 3-under 68 on Thursday afternoon at Royal Liverpool in some of the day’s toughest conditions. He stand T7 into the second round, marking his first time inside the top 10 after the opening round of a major. He did it with four birdies against just one bogey, steadily plodding around Royal Liverpool with flush woods and long irons. He rebounded from his lone blemish at the par-3 ninth with back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11, then closed with seven straight pars in increasingly firm conditions.

Last month, Homa missed the cut at his hometown U.S. Open in heartbreaking fashion, carding 68-76 at Los Angeles Country Club, the same course where he shot 61 at the 2013 Pac-12 Championship. He then missed the cut by a stroke at the following week’s Travelers Championship. Normally one of the TOUR’s leaders in Strokes Gained: Perspective, he found negative thoughts creeping in.

So he decided to inscribe a motivational message on his glove, beginning at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he finished T21. He wouldn’t reveal the specifics – “it has a bad word in it” – but it correlated with an uptick in play. He finished T12 at the Genesis Scottish Open, and he’s in the mix early at Royal Liverpool.

“Just stop caring so much and let myself just be myself,” Homa said of the message. “Sometimes you just need a reminder that it’s going to be all right. Just go play golf.”

As they say around here, let it be.

No. 17 claims its first victim: Lucas Herbert walked to the penultimate hole of his first round 3 under, good enough for the share of the lead. He left the devilish 126-yard par-3 back where he started the round, even par. A triple-bogey 6 derailed the 27-year-old Australian, but he’s hardly expected to be the only one to fall victim to the newly created 17th.

The hole, created a few years ago to replace the par-3 15th, was added with drama in mind. It may be short, but danger lurks everywhere. A steep fallout at the entrance of the green rejects any balls that start short. Tall fescue and waste line the front and back of the green while deep pot bunkers are situated strategically on the left and right. Its exposed spot on the course will make the wind a challenge too.

Players will need to successfully navigate the hole four times to hold the Claret Jug on Sunday night. It’s easier said than done. Herbert is proof.

“I could have told you there would be carnage,” he said. “I could have predicted it for you.”

After hitting his tee shot in the left rough, Herbert misjudged a chip that scurried past the hole and caught the slope down into the deep pot bunker right of the green. His shot cleared the lip of the bunker but didn’t make it up to the flat part of the green, careening back to his feet in the bunker. His second attempt held the green, but he missed the putt for a double bogey.

“It's pretty hard to feel the wind in there and the tee box, it's very enclosed and you don't get a lot of exposure to it. Guys are going to get that wrong all day,” he said. “I don't think I'll be the only one to run up a big number.

Royal Liverpool member shines: Matthew Jordan has played hundreds of rounds at Royal Liverpool, but none have felt quite like Thursday’s opening round at The Open Championship. A member of the club since he was 7 years old, the 27-year-old DP World Tour golfer took the opening tee shot of the tournament, then trekked across the familiar grounds of Royal Liverpool and put together a round that the many hometown faces following him could feel proud of, a 2-under 69. After a wayward drive, he made par on the first hole, then birdied the second, one of four on his card. Jordan led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach when his final putt dropped for par on the 18th.

“I'm kind of running out of words to describe it,” he said. “It was crazy, mental, loud, everything that I could have wished for.”

Calm conditions yield scoring opportunities: Playing in The Open Championship can often look miserable. The dreary conditions that frequently define the competition – cold, rainy, windy and gray – are typically the biggest defenses for a links course like Royal Liverpool. And while those conditions are forecasted for later in the week, Thursday provided a reprieve. It was sunny and scorable for much of the day. Winds were never forecasted higher than 25 mph for the opening round and the course remained relatively soft, with balls spinning back on occasion after rain earlier in the week. Lamprecht and Fleetwood flirted with the course-record 65 and birdie opportunities were plentiful if you avoided the distinctive pot bunkers.

Rain is expected throughout the rest of the competition, with moderate rain showers first in the forecast for Friday morning. Showers are predicted again Saturday, with Sunday the most likely day for more severe weather. The wind speeds are predicted to stay relatively steady throughout the week, although it's expected to switch directions by Saturday. That could change things, particularly on a hole like the par-3 17th, which is on an exposed part of the property.

“(If) the wind picks up or tomorrow as it changes directions,” Jordan Spieth said, “and it's blowing harder and into us, it could become carnage.”

NOTABLES

Brian Harman (4 under): The gritty Georgia Bulldog, making a late push for a Ryder Cup spot after three straight top-12 finishes on TOUR, punctuated a five-birdie, one-bogey Thursday with a 31-foot birdie at the closing hole. Harman, 36, also finished T6 at last year’s Open.

Stewart Cink (3 under): The 2009 Open Champion has yet to finish better than T20 in this tournament since his win at Turnberry 14 years ago. A bogey-free opening round of 68 will aid his effort to change that.

Wyndham Clark (3 under): They say links golf is always about two different nines. This was definitely the case for the U.S. Open champion. Carding nine straight pars to start, Clark found his groove on the back-nine and circled four birdies towards a back-nine 33. The lone bogey on his returning nine came on the par-4 14th. Finding the fescue off the tee, Clark for all his strength, could only advance his ball a few feet. He bounced back at the very next hole though with a birdie.

Jordan Spieth (2 under): It’s become routine at this point, Spieth playing well at the Open Championship. He’s won the tournament twice, most recently in 2017 and has finished inside the top 10 in three of his last five appearances. A first-round 69 has him in contention again. If not for a double bogey on the par-4 eighth, Spieth would be right near the lead.

Viktor Hovland (1 under): The world’s fifth-ranked player was 2-over through 10 holes but righted the ship with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 11 and 12, then added a birdie at 16 to finish the day in red figures. The Norwegian has three top-10s in the last four majors, including a T4 at last year’s Open, and he stays in the mix for his first major title.

Brooks Koepka (1 under): The PGA champion atoned for a sluggish start at Royal Liverpool with a back-nine 34 to finish in red figures after Round 1. Standing at 2-over par in the 11th fairway Koepka would nearly jar his approach shot and go on to birdie the next hole as well as the par-5 15th.

Scottie Scheffler (1 under): The 27-year-old tallied four birdies and three bogeys in an up-and-down first round with his putter. Scheffler made a 30-footer for birdie on his second hole but later missed par putts of 3 and 4 feet. But as has been the story over the last several months, Scheffler’s ball-striking steadied him. He’s firmly in contention after one round.

Adam Scott (1 over): The Australian fell victim to the much-debated internal out of bounds down the right side of the 18th fairway. Standing on the tee at 1 under, the wayward drive cost him two shots as he went on to make a double bogey. Scott has had close calls at The Open before, most notably in 2012 when he bogeyed the final four holes to lose a four-shot lead to Ernie Els. He finished in the top 10 in each of the next three years but has not notched another since 2015.

Rickie Fowler (1 over): Fowler’s round blew up on the 18th hole after he hit a pair of approach shots out of bounds. Standing in the fairway 249 yards away from the hole, Fowler’s ball leaked into the internal out of bounds on the right. His second attempt did the same. He eventually made a triple-bogey 8 to fall outside of the top 10.

Justin Thomas (11 over): The two-time major champion faces an uphill battle in order to play the weekend. His round, which included double bogeys at Nos. 7 and 14, unraveled with a quadruple-bogey 9 at the par-5 18th. Thomas’ major results this year include two missed cuts and a T65 at the PGA Championship.