Names Old and New Top British Open Leaderboard

A technique for successful one in all golf’s main championships solely hardly ever appears like this: Find your flight canceled and the following one delayed, stroll a couple of half-mile to passport management, endure a grinding wait at baggage declare lower than 48 hours earlier than the event’s first tee instances and stare down jet lag.

It labored effectively sufficient for Stewart Cink on Thursday on the British Open.

“When the gun goes off and you start in the tournament, you’ve got that adrenaline, and adrenaline does wonders for your jet lag,” Cink, 50, stated. It additionally appeared to do a lot good for his scorecard, which reported a three-under-par 68 that positioned him excessive on the first-round leaderboard at northwest England’s Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

It is eternally a harmful sport to forecast a event’s destiny after a single spherical, and it appeared notably dangerous after the early going at Royal Liverpool, the place the leaderboard’s prime reaches blended outdated names and new ones and a military of formidable, acquainted challengers lurked just under.

There was Cink, who gained the 2009 Open at Turnberry in Scotland by outlasting Tom Watson, then 59, in a playoff. But Christo Lamprecht, an newbie who performs for Georgia Tech, completed his five-under spherical with the lead. Tommy Fleetwood, a previous Open runner-up, and Emiliano Grillo, who birdied 5 of his final eight holes, matched Lamprecht later within the day, letting them start Friday with one-stroke benefits over Brian Harman, Adrián Otaegui and Antoine Rozner.

Rory McIlroy, who gained the British Open in 2014, when the event was final performed at Royal Liverpool, completed at par, and Cameron Smith, seeking to defend the title he gained at St. Andrews in Scotland final summer season, was one over.

With the climate on the course, often called Hoylake, anticipated to deteriorate throughout the event — the R&A’s chief government, Martin Slumbers, listed the weekend’s choices as “wet” or “very wet” — Thursday was maybe the perfect probability for the 156-man discipline to make pictures with out diabolical problems. (The gamers actually had higher odds of taking pictures par or higher than ending one of many course’s soft-serve ice cream cones earlier than seeing it soften right into a sticky, spectacular mess.)

Fleetwood, who’s from Southport, England, simply 30 miles north, is a crowd favourite practically all over the place however particularly in Britain. On Thursday, he delivered the form of sterling play that has these days eluded him early within the main championships. He had not completed under par in a serious’s first spherical for the reason that 2021 Open at Royal St. George’s, the place he in the end tied for thirty third.

“As first rounds go, that’s absolutely the one you wanted, and to get off to a good start feels good,” stated Fleetwood, who struggled with early tees however left No. 5 emboldened by a birdie. He returned the stroke on the following gap, earlier than selecting it up once more on the seventh. He birdied 4 holes on the again 9 and began a streak of three at No. 14.

Lamprecht’s rise started sooner, with a birdie on the third gap. But it got here solely after a poor tee shot at No. 1 — when he felt most likely his “only bit of nerves” all day, he stated — that prompted a pep speak from Devin Stanton, his caddie and his assistant coach at Georgia Tech.

“Listen, you’re playing the Open as an amateur,” Lamprecht stated Stanton instructed him. “No need to stress.”

Lamprecht, who at 6-foot-8 is among the many tallest gamers ever to compete within the British Open, now being held for the 151st time, responded in pressure. He stumbled twice on the again 9 however used 4 birdies inside that stretch to complete at 66.

“I think the way I played today I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard, as of now,” Lamprecht, 22, stated. “It’s not a cocky thing to say. I just personally think I believe in myself, and I guess stepping onto the first tee box if you’re a professional or a competitor, you should be believing that you should be the best standing there.”

Cink, a Georgia Tech alumnus who nonetheless makes use of the apply facility there, has gawked over Lamprecht’s abilities, together with his monumental energy, and marveled once more on Thursday afternoon.

“As a 50-year-old golfer seeing a guy like him, he is pretty much like your basic nightmare, watching a guy like him coming up,” Cink stated on Thursday. “He can hit it like 330 in the air and he hits those little shots around the green so soft, it’s amazing. He’s got a lot of really good potential in front of him.”

Not that Cink was able to cede the event to Lamprecht, not after a day when he nearly fully prevented Royal Liverpool’s 84 brutish bunkers. Their flatness, Cink noticed, sends a momentum-loaded ball towards the lip, unimpeded by gravity. And regardless of his rating, he didn’t regard Hoylake as notably suited to his strengths.

“But playing smart and being disciplined and patient and keeping your heart in the right place, that fits my game,” stated Cink, who turned 50 in May and has been mulling whether or not to play extra occasions on the PGA Tour Champions, because the senior tour is understood nowadays.

“It’s required on courses like this, and it comes down to execution,” stated Cink, whose spouse, Lisa, is his caddie this week. “Today I executed very well, and it was pretty evident in the scorecard. It was a nice clean day. Putted well from inside eight feet. That’s the kind of stuff you have to do in a major.”

The reduce, set on the prime 70 plus ties, is predicted Friday evening. Headed into the second spherical, the previous main winners Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas had been all at risk of seeing their ambitions of successful the claret jug finish shortly. Thomas, who gained the 2017 and 2022 P.G.A. Championships, shot 11 over on Thursday, placing him in a tie for 153rd.

But another main champions, together with Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama and Scottie Scheffler, had been solely 4 strokes off the lead, laying the groundwork for a jostle towards the highest.

Cink insisted Thursday that the event was hardly the unique dominion of the sport’s youthful gamers. Two years in the past, he famous, Phil Mickelson gained the P.G.A. Championship at 50, after which there was Watson’s for-the-ages efficiency in 2009.

“I have no doubts that I can win this,” Cink stated. “It’s going to take a lot. It’s going to take some really, really exceptional play on my behalf, but it’s in there.”

Indeed, even a participant as preternaturally assured as Clark — final month he stated that his May victory on the Wells Fargo Championship had (appropriately) persuaded him that he was adequate to win a serious — famous the trials of a event like this one.

“This is just Day 1,” Clark stated. “Got three more days.”