HOYLAKE
\nTommy Fleetwood took advantage of benign conditions to shoot a sparkling 66 and share the British Open first-round lead with South African amateur Christo Lamprecht on Thursday.
\nFleetwood, bidding to become the first Englishman to win the title since Nick Faldo in 1992, picked up four birdies on the back nine to join the towering Lamprecht on five under par at a sun-kissed Hoylake.
\nRoared on by the galleries at a course 30 miles from where he was born, the 32-year-old Fleetwood made the perfect start to his bid for a first major crown.
\n\u201cIt was very cool and I think you can\u2019t ask for more from the fans and the support. They were so great to me today,\u201d the world number 21 told reporters.
\n\u201cSuch a special opportunity to play so close to home. I am glad I gave them some good golf to watch. To be in the clubhouse now, to have played so well, it\u2019s a lovely feeling.\u201d
\nLamprecht, six foot eight inches tall, drove with great power and accuracy in a round including seven birdies and two bogeys.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal,\u201d the 22-year-old said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see a lot of work behind the scenes pay off. It\u2019s something I haven\u2019t dreamt of yet.\u201d
\nAmerican Stewart Cink, Open champion in 2009, rolled back the years with a flawless 68 to finish at three under, level with compatriot Wyndham Clark who won last month\u2019s US Open.
\nJordan Spieth, the 2017 Open champion, shot 69 and world number one Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay 70s to add a strong American presence to the leaderboard.
\nEngland\u2019s Matthew Jordan, who had the honour of hitting the opening tee shot at Royal Liverpool Golf Club where he has been a member since the age of seven, also carded 69.
\n\u201cAmazing, I\u2019m kind of running out of words to describe it,\u201d the 27-year-old told reporters. \u201cIt was crazy, mental, loud, everything that I could have wished for.\u201d
\nIt was a mixed day for defending champion Cameron Smith whose 72 was sprinkled with five bogeys and four birdies.
\n\u201cThere was lots of good today for myself, but probably just as much or even more bad. Nothing really to work on, to be honest. It still feels really good,\u201d the Australian said.
\nWorld number two Rory McIlroy, favourite to win his fifth major at the course where he lifted the Claret Jug in 2014, was among the late starters and he settled his nerves with a brilliant approach shot to birdie the second hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOYLAKE Tommy Fleetwood took advantage of benign conditions to shoot a sparkling 66 and share the British Open first-round lead with South African amateur Christo Lamprecht on Thursday. Fleetwood, bidding to become the first Englishman to win the title since Nick Faldo in 1992, picked up four birdies on the back nine to join the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-344674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n