A technique for successful considered one of golf’s main championships solely not often appears to be like like this: Discover your flight canceled and the subsequent one delayed, stroll a few half-mile to passport management, endure a grinding wait at baggage declare lower than 48 hours earlier than the match’s first tee occasions and stare down jet lag.
It labored properly sufficient for Stewart Cink on Thursday on the British Open.
“When the gun goes off and also you begin within the match, you’ve received that adrenaline, and adrenaline does wonders in your jet lag,” Cink, 50, stated. It additionally appeared to do lots 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 Membership.
It’s endlessly a harmful recreation to forecast a match’s destiny after a single spherical, and it appeared significantly dangerous after the early going at Royal Liverpool, the place the leaderboard’s high reaches blended previous names and new ones and a military of formidable, acquainted challengers lurked just under.
There was Cink, who received the 2009 Open at Turnberry in Scotland by outlasting Tom Watson, then 59, in a playoff. However 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 received the British Open in 2014, when the match was final performed at Royal Liverpool, completed at par, and Cameron Smith, trying to defend the title he received at St. Andrews in Scotland final summer time, was one over.
With the climate on the course, generally known as Hoylake, anticipated to deteriorate in the course of the match — the R&A’s chief govt, Martin Slumbers, listed the weekend’s choices as “moist” or “very moist” — Thursday was maybe the very best probability for the 156-man subject to make photographs with out diabolical problems. (The gamers definitely had higher odds of capturing 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 sort of sterling play that has recently eluded him early within the main championships. He had not completed under par in a significant’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 completely the one you needed, and to get off to begin feels good,” stated Fleetwood, who struggled with early tees however left No. 5 emboldened by a birdie. He returned the stroke on the subsequent gap, earlier than choosing 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. However it got here solely after a poor tee shot at No. 1 — when he felt in all probability his “solely little bit of nerves” all day, he stated — that prompted a pep speak from Devin Stanton, his caddie and his assistant coach at Georgia Tech.
“Pay attention, you’re taking part in the Open as an newbie,” Lamprecht stated Stanton informed him. “No must 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 drive. He stumbled twice on the again 9 however used 4 birdies inside that stretch to complete at 66.
“I believe the way in which I performed at present I earned to be on the highest of the leaderboard, as of now,” Lamprecht, 22, stated. “It’s not a cocky factor to say. I simply personally suppose I imagine in myself, and I suppose stepping onto the primary tee field in the event you’re an expert or a competitor, try to be believing that try to be the very best standing there.”
Cink, a Georgia Tech alumnus who nonetheless makes use of the observe facility there, has gawked over Lamprecht’s abilities, together with his huge energy, and marveled once more on Thursday afternoon.
“As a 50-year-old golfer seeing a man like him, he’s just about like your primary nightmare, watching a man like him arising,” Cink stated on Thursday. “He can hit it like 330 within the air and he hits these little photographs across the inexperienced so delicate, it’s wonderful. He’s received a variety of actually good potential in entrance of him.”
Not that Cink was able to cede the match to Lamprecht, not after a day when he virtually 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 significantly suited to his strengths.
“However taking part in sensible and being disciplined and affected person and preserving your coronary heart in the appropriate place, that matches my recreation,” stated Cink, who turned 50 in Could and has been mulling whether or not to play extra occasions on the PGA Tour Champions, because the senior tour is understood as of late.
“It’s required on programs like this, and it comes right down to execution,” stated Cink, whose spouse, Lisa, is his caddie this week. “In the present day I executed very properly, and it was fairly evident within the scorecard. It was a pleasant clear day. Putted properly from inside eight toes. That’s the sort of stuff it’s a must to do in a significant.”
The lower, set on the high 70 plus ties, is anticipated Friday evening. Headed into the second spherical, the previous main winners Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas have been all in peril of seeing their ambitions of successful the claret jug finish rapidly. Thomas, who received the 2017 and 2022 P.G.A. Championships, shot 11 over on Thursday, placing him in a tie for 153rd.
However another main champions, together with Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama and Scottie Scheffler, have been solely 4 strokes off the lead, laying the groundwork for a jostle towards the highest.
Cink insisted Thursday that the match was hardly the unique dominion of the sport’s youthful gamers. Two years in the past, he famous, Phil Mickelson received the P.G.A. Championship at 50, after which there was Watson’s for-the-ages efficiency in 2009.
“I’ve no doubts that I can win this,” Cink stated. “It’s going to take quite a bit. It’s going to take some actually, actually distinctive play on my behalf, but it surely’s in there.”
Certainly, even a participant as preternaturally assured as Clark — final month he stated that his Could victory on the Wells Fargo Championship had (appropriately) persuaded him that he was adequate to win a significant — famous the pains of a match like this one.
“That is simply Day 1,” Clark stated. “Acquired three extra days.”