Category: 2023 British Open

Tiger Woods holds fond memories of victory at Royal Liverpool

“That week in 2006 was a very emotional one.”

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HOYLAKE, England — Tiger Woods is missed this week at the 151st British Open at Royal Liverpool. But that doesn’t mean he has been forgotten.

Woods, who won the Claret Jug here in 2006, was honored on Tuesday evening at the annual Association of Golf Writers dinner. Woods, who had ankle surgery in April and is sidelined indefinitely, received an award for outstanding services to golf. Woods delivered a recorded acceptance speech from his Florida home. He highlighted his victory at Hoylake, where he sobbed on the shoulder of his caddie Steve Williams after tapping in to secure the win just two months after the death of his father, Earl.

“That week in 2006 was a very emotional one,” Woods said in the recorded message. “It was the first championship I ever won without my dad being there. It was a tough, tough week, but also probably the most gratifying. After my last putt I realized my dad was never going to see this again.”

Open Championship 2023: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole

It marked the last of Woods’s three Claret Jugs in 22 appearances. He also noted the third-round 81 he shot in dreadful conditions at Muirfield in 2002.

“That was the worst day I have ever known and probably the worst in the history of golf,” he said. “I have never felt that cold on a course, I have never felt that wet and have never felt that miserable. I remember a couple of my friends among the writers from the UK offering me coffee when I walked in to speak. That was great.”

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Wyndham Clark hits fan’s iPad at British Open, forced to hack out of thick fescue

Clark took a major hack out of some thick fescue only to see the ball go about two feet.

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There’s nothing like the British Open, and there’s nothing like true links golf.

“There’s some great American links courses, but it’s not the same,” said Jordan Spieth after his first round of the 2023 Open Championship. “You don’t have the fescue grass, and that’s what makes it.”

If you were watching U.S. Open champ Wyndham Clark on the 14th hole during Thursday’s first round of the Open Championship, you saw a major champion taking a major hack out of some of that thick fescue.

Choking up on his club, Clark swung about as hard as humanly possible, only to see his ball pop up, advance about two feet and then disappear again.

From there, his third shot landed greenside, and then he got up-and-down to save bogey on the par-4 hole, his lone bogey of the day in which he shot a 3-under 68 to put himself in contention.

“That was huge. A little unfortunate off the tee, obviously hitting the guy is never good, but it really went into a bad spot. If I didn’t hit the guy, probably would have been in fine grass and I would have been able to hit it up near the green,” Clark said. “Then I had an awful lie and hit it about two feet. Then got very fortunate I didn’t go in the bunker.”

Open Championship 2023: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole

Wait, his ball hit a fan?

“Yeah, it hit his iPad, didn’t hit him,” Clark clarified. He was then asked if the iPad was ok. “Well, I don’t care now. It screwed me up.”

Clearly not enough to throw him off his round. He birdied the next hole, parred Nos. 16 and 17 and then closed with a birdie. The pair of 4s on the two par 5s down the stretch was huge, but escaping real trouble on 14 was perhaps even bigger.

“Getting up-and-down and making about a 20-footer really is a round saver.”

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Englishman Tommy Fleetwood is feeling the local love, leads British Open with 66

“I’ll always be a northwest boy, and to have so many people out there from the area supporting is really, really great.”

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HOYLAKE, England — Englishman Tommy Fleetwood figures he’s imagined winning the British Open in his native land a million times.

“Winning a major is a dream, or winning the Open is a huge, huge dream,” he said. “For sure I’ve pictured it a lot and visualized it a lot; just haven’t done it yet in person, so that’s hopefully the next thing.”

Fleetwood is off to a stellar start at the 151st British Open as he tries to make his dream come true. On Thursday, the 32-year-old Fleetwood fired a 5-under 66 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club to share the opening-round lead with South African amateur Christo Lamprecht and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.

Fleetwood has been plagued by slow starts, recording only five rounds in the 60s to start his week this season on the PGA Tour. It adds up to a first-round scoring average of 70.38, which ranks a dismal 72nd overall. Asked if this was one of his most enjoyable starts at a major, Fleetwood didn’t hesitate to nod in the affirmative.

“One of, for sure,” he said. “Just a combination of everything really. One of the things that we’ve said this week is what an amazing time it is for us to be out on the golf course with that support, playing in an Open. It’s very, very special.”

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Bathed in glorious sunshine that made his rock-star hair glisten, Fleetwood sandwiched birdies at Nos. 5 and 7 around his lone bogey of the day at the sixth. Out in 34, he tacked on a birdie at the 11th and then reeled off three straight birdies starting at the 14th.

Fleetwood has been a picture of consistency this season – notching six top-10 finishes, including losing in a playoff at the RBC Canadian Open, a T-5 at the U.S. Open in June and T-6 last week at the Genesis Scottish Open.

“It’s much better having good results than getting kicked in the teeth all the time when you feel like you’re working so hard and you’re doing the right things,” Fleetwood said. “I think good results always spur you on and they give you the confidence to keep pushing on and doing those things.”

What has eluded Fleetwood is victory — he’s still winless on the PGA Tour and since the start of the 2017-18 season has the second-most top 10s of any player without a win in that span with 26. (Brian Harman with 29 leads this dubious distinction.) To hear Fleetwood tell it, he just needs to continue to be patient and trust in what he’s doing.

“There’s times where it could go either way, and it hasn’t gone my way yet,” Fleetwood said. “It’ll be my turn soon.”

He’s had his share of chances at majors, including at the British Open, where he finished second to Shane Lowry in 2019. All told, he’s recorded six top-fives in majors, including a runner-up finish at the 2018 U.S. Open. Fleetwood, born and bred in Southport, England, is bidding to become the first Englishman to win the British Open since Nick Faldo in 1992. Fleetwood considers Royal Liverpool to be “hallowed turf,” a links where one of his closest friends as kid was a member and he had the chance to play it on occasion. He’ll have plenty of support to win on home soil from a partisan crowd, who have been cheering heartily for their “Tommy Lad.”

“I’ll always be a northwest boy, and to have so many people out there from the area supporting is really, really great,” Fleetwood said. “You can easily put too much pressure on yourself. You can easily try too hard. But just having that support and people egging you on, whether you’ve hit a good shot or a bad shot, good hole, bad hole. Yeah, just pushes you on…having the opportunity to do it so close to where you grew up is something that’s very unique and very special.”

Photos: Tommy Fleetwood and wife, Clare, through the years

The Fleetwoods were married in 2017.

Tommy Fleetwood had himself quite the day Thursday at the 2023 Open Championship. The Englishman grew up a mere hour from Royal Liverpool, the host of this year’s final men’s major, and is feeling the hometown love so far this week.

A 5-under 66 has Fleetwood tied for the early lead and in position once again to make a run at a major title.

In eight previous appearances at the Open, Fleetwood has two top-5 finishes, one in 2019 at Royal Portrush (2nd) and one last year at St. Andrews (T-4).

On top of his search for his maiden major title, Fleetwood is still looking for his first win on the PGA Tour.

Here are some of the best photos of Fleetwood and his wife, Clare, who he married in 2017.

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Standing at 6-foot-8, Christo Lamprecht is using unique clubs at 2023 Open

Here’s Lamprecht’s golf equipment at the 2023 Open.

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South African amateur Christo Lamprecht carded seven birdies Thursday to take the early lead at the 151st British Open, which is being played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. The Georgia Tech standout who earned a spot in the field by winning last season’s British Amateur Championship truly stands out in the field because he is 6 feet, 8 inches tall.

The golf equipment you see on pro shop walls is designed to be ideally suited to a person of “average size,” but golfers who are taller or shorter often need clubs made at non-traditional sizes. Lamprecht, who is the tallest player to ever compete for Georgia Tech, falls into that category.

Lamprecht uses a 9-degree Ping G430 LST that has an actual loft of 7.5 degrees, and that is fitted with a Mitsubishi Kuro Kage XT 70 TX shaft. The club’s finished length is 46 inches, which is the maximum legal length for non-putters. The combination of Lamprecht’s long arms and that long driver helps him create enormous clubhead speed and distance, and on Thursday, his average tee shot went 325 yards, which was 33 yards longer than the average drive of the golfers in the morning wave of tee times. His longest drive of the day was 363 yards.

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Lamprecht’s fairway woods, irons and wedges are all 1½ inches longer than standard clubs, while his Ping 2021 Harwood Armlock putter is 43 inches long and has 4.5 degrees of loft.

Below is a list of the clubs he is using this week at Royal Liverpool:

DRIVER: G430 LST (9 degrees adjusted to 7.5 degrees), with Mitsubishi Kuro Kage XT 70 TX shaft

FAIRWAY WOOD: Titleist TSR2 (15 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS Black shaft

IRONS: Ping i230 (3), Blueprint (4-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts

WEDGES: Ping Glide Forged Pro (50, 54, 60 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts

PUTTER: Ping 2021 Harwood Armlock

BALL: Titleist Pro V1

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Christo Lamprecht ‘the Lamp Post’ leads the way with 66 at 2023 British Open

Everyone in the field is looking up at the 6-foot-8 South African in more ways than one.

HOYLAKE, England — Christo Lamprecht stopped in the 18th fairway at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Thursday and took a mental photograph of his name on the famed yellow leaderboard at the 151st British Open.

Everyone in the field was looking up at the 6-foot-8 South African, who is believed to be the tallest player ever to compete in golf’s oldest championship, but not for the usual reason. Lamprecht, a 22-year-old ranked third in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and playing collegiately at Georgia Tech, carded seven birdies and shot an opening-round 5-under 66 to grab a share of the lead with Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo. Lamprecht, who is the first amateur to hold the lead or co-lead after any round on the PGA Tour since Paul Dunne in the third round at the 2015 Open Championship, smiled after the round as he described how the view from the top of the leaderboard suited him just fine.

“It’s nice to see a lot of work behind the scenes pay off,” he said. “It’s something I haven’t dreamt of yet, but it’s pretty cool.”

Open Championship 2023: Leaderboard, tee times, hole-by-hole

Lamprecht is hard to miss, and as he surged to the top of the leaderboard, his height became a topic of conversation in the gallery. Lamprecht is as lean as a 1-iron and as light as a lamp post, which might make for a good nickname (Lamprecht the Lamp Post or simply the Lamp Post has a good ring to it.)

He only sports a size 13 shoe, but he can certainly send it off the tee, noting that his stock driver carries 320-325 yards. Still, he can bust it 340 yards in the air if need be.

“But I don’t want to. Not in this weather. Not in links golf,” he said. “It rolls far enough, so I kind of keep it in front of me.”

Color long-bombing Bryson DeChambeau impressed. He stopped to take a look at Lamprecht’s action.

“He just wished he had my length, I guess,” Lamprecht cracked.

Don’t we all. Stewart Cink, the 2009 Open champion and a Georgia Tech alum, has hit balls next to Lamprecht on several occasions at the school’s practice facility in Atlanta and offered this assessment:

“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 said. “He’s got a lot of really good potential in front of him.”

At 6-foot-4, Lamprecht’s father, an accountant by trade, is shortest of the past five generations. His great grandpa measured an even 7 feet. Lamprecht played on South Africa’s junior national team but gave it up to pursue golf early in high school. That’s also about the time he went through a growth spurt.

“Everything golf-wise was everywhere,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I was changing clubs every six months.”

Almost as surprising as his gangly build is his lack of a South African accent.

“Apparently I’m a full-blown American now, which I don’t like,” he said. “Yeah, it’s bad. I don’t know why it’s changed. I can’t change it back. I don’t know what’s happening.”

As a junior golfer in South Africa, Lamprecht participated in Louis Oosthuizen’s golf academy for four years. After Lamprecht became the youngest winner of the South African Amateur in 2017, he said, “I hope Louis is really proud of me.”

Lamprecht earned a berth in the British Open field last month by winning the British Amateur, and got paired with Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, for the first two rounds. He called Oosthuizen, who is nearly a foot shorter than him, “someone I’ve looked up to.”

“It was kind of a nice draw,” he said. “I thought they rigged it by some means, but no, I loved it.”

Yet Lamprecht said he still experienced a case of nerves at the first tee. On Wednesday afternoon, he had a lousy range session. Then he had another poor session before his first round and snap-hooked his drive at the first. That’s when his caddie, his assistant coach at Georgia Tech, Devin Stanton, told him, “Listen, you’re playing The Open as an amateur; no need to stress.”

From there, the birdies started falling, including three in a four-hole stretch on the front nine and a chip-in from about 40 yards at the difficult 14th hole.

“That was a big steal,” he said.

Oosthuizen, who shot, 74, was asked if Lamprecht had ever beaten him before when they played.

“Never by eight strokes,” Oosthuizen said.

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Photos: 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool

The best images from Hoylake.

The final men’s major of the year is at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England, for the 2023 Open Championship.

Cam Smith entered the week as the defending champion after his come-from-behind victory over Rory McIlroy at St. Andrews in 2022.

McIlroy claimed the Claret Jug at Hoylake nine years ago, his third of four (and most recent) major victories. Like Smith, McIlroy won in his last start, the Genesis Scottish Open.

But it was Brian Harman coming out on top, claiming his first major by a whopping six shots over the competition.

Here are some of the best photos from the 2023 Open Championship.

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Patrick Reed talks Ryder Cup, playing all three tours at the 2023 Open

“I was that one guy when they said no one can play all three. Well, I did it. Shocker.”

Patrick Reed hasn’t had much success at the Open Championship over the last two years. After missing the cut in 2021 at Royal St. George’s, Reed tied for 47th at St. Andrews in 2022.

However, he’s off to a great start this time around, posting an opening-round 1-under 70 at Royal Liverpool on Thursday morning.

“Oh, it was frustrating,” Reed said of his round. “Felt like I hit the ball pretty well for the most part. Left myself a lot of good looks, a lot of good spots. Just didn’t really make anything.

“The game feels good. The number is just not producing. That very easily should have been a 4-, 5-, 6-under par round, and I shoot 1-under par. I guess I could say it’s kind of one of my better first rounds I’ve had in a while. I’m having to play huge catch-up.”

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Despite this week being the final men’s major championship until the Masters in April, it’s easy to look forward to September’s Ryder Cup. Reed has been a part of three United States vs. Europe battles, but missed out on the Whistling Straits blowout two years ago.

His move to the LIV Golf League has made his journey to earning a spot on Zach Johnson’s team much more difficult, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just look at LIV’s Brooks Koepka, who currently owns an automatic qualifying spot thanks to his performances in majors this year, including a win at the PGA Championship.

Reed understands what he has to do to earn a trip to Rome, and he’s trying to keep it as simple as possible.

“I mean, the only thing I can do on that is go out and play well this week, go out and have a chance hopefully to win the tournament on Sunday and put myself in that position where they have to think about it,” Reed said.

“That’s the thing; playing good golf takes care of everything. Takes care of these events, the majors, takes care of the Ryder Cups and all that. Just going and playing your way on, but playing well. Yeah, the guys that are part of LIV of course we’re on the 8-ball with that because of course we only have four tournaments that count. All we can do is continue playing solid golf and give yourself chances because winning trophies takes care of that.”

Patrick Reed of the United States reacts on the ninth during the morning fourball matches of the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National on September 29, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Reed mentioned that he has talked to Johnson this week, but the conversation wasn’t about golf.

The 2018 Masters champ was later asked about potentially playing on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf League as the landscape of the sport is being transformed by the Tour-PIF framework agreement.

“I’ve always wanted to play and keep my European Tour status. I’m an honorary lifetime member. I take pride in that,” he said. “PGA Tour, yeah of course I’d love to play. The first year of LIV I would have played the minimum — I already played the minimum on the PGA Tour.

“I have played every event on LIV and I would have played the minimum on the European Tour. I was that one guy when they said no one can play all three. Well, I did it. Shocker.

“But that’s the thing. Where I play, who knows. If I play PGA Tour, LIV, or if I played European Tour. The biggest thing is there should be no reason why if we’ve qualified well we shouldn’t be able to. People say you can’t make your cake and eat it, as well, but how many PGA Tour players go over and play a European Tour for money? They’re getting appearance fees. They’re not showing up to play for competition. They’re getting paid to do that. It shouldn’t matter as long as you play the minimum and do what you’re supposed to, you play, and that’s fine.

“If you play the minimum on the European Tour and you earn enough points to keep your card, you should be able to play. If you play the minimum on the PGA Tour and you have enough FedExCup points to keep your card, more power to you.”

Reed will tee off at 7:31 a.m. ET Friday for his second round.

2023 British Open updates: Leaderboard and more from Royal Liverpool

It’s the final men’s major of 2023.

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HOYLAKE, England — The final men’s golf major of the year is in the books, as Brian Harman has won the 2023 British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

Harman passed his biggest test Sunday, enduring a typical English summer day of a steady rain and a rocky start to shoot 1-under 70 at Royal Liverpool and win the 151st British Open by six strokes over Tom Kim (67), Sepp Straka (69), Jason Day (69) and Jon Rahm (70).

Harman, however, had been the leader of a dubious distinction: he’s been a top-10 machine but hasn’t won since the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship, recording 29 top-10s since the start of the 2017-18 PGA Tour season, the most of any player without a win in that span.

“It’s been hard to deal with,” he said. “That’s a lot of times where you get done, you’re like, ‘Dammit, man, I had that one.’…Like when is it going to be my turn again?”

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10 years after Rickie Fowler took his first lesson from Butch Harmon could he be ready for his first major?

Rickie Fowler winning the British Open at Liverpool this week would be the biggest thing to happen in these parts since the Beatles.

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HOYLAKE, England — Rickie Fowler has fond memories of playing in the 2014 British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. He finished second to Rory McIlroy, but never was really a threat on Sunday.

But when Fowler thinks back to British Opens in the past, he tends to go back one more year to Muirfield and a missed cut that stuck in his craw. On Saturday at the 2013 Open, Fowler hung around and met with instructor Butch Harmon for the first time. He can’t remember whether he got the  number of the famed instructor from Phil Mickelson or his then-caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay, but after consulting with then-caddie Joe Skovron he knew it was time to re-build his swing and find a second set of eyes. Fowler’s longtime instructor Barry McDonnell had died in May 2011. Fowler was so broken up that he couldn’t speak at McDonnell’s funeral and he had been working on his swing on his own.

Harmon was at Muirfield that week to do TV commentary for Sky Sports and work with his stable of players, but he found a window of time in the early afternoon to watch Fowler hit balls — that’s how nearly every player-coach relationship starts. Harmon gave him a few drills to help with his back swing and position at the top.

“I wouldn’t say we accomplished a whole lot because I was hitting it terribly but I knew that we had some stuff to work on and this is where we’re starting,” Fowler recalled.

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As a matter of fact, Fowler struggled so mightily to find the clubface that he asked Harmon, “Are you trying to make me look bad?”

“I think you’ve done that on your own the last two days,” snapped back Harmon.

Fowler immediately liked the way Harmon was a straight shooter. Despite never winning a major, they had a fruitful relationship with Fowler reaching No. 4 in the world in 2016 and becoming a perennial top-50 player. Not long after Fowler hooked up with Harmon, he learned that McDonnell had told the guys at the driving range where he taught Fowler that he thought Harmon shared his old-school techniques and was the right instructor to work with Fowler when he was gone.

“It was nice to hear Barry’s stamp of approval,” Fowler said.

Fowler remained in Harmon’s stable until 2019 when he retired from traveling to PGA Tour events. In the ensuing years, his game took a turn for the worst. Fowler went 29 consecutive events without recording a top-10 finish and his ranking dropped to 185th. In October, he reunited with Harmon. Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner recently analyzed Fowler’s swing from the 2021 CJ Cup, when he had a top-10 finish during his slump, and compared it to Fowler’s current technique with the fixes Harmon has made.

“His clubhead was so laid off. It was like underneath his shoulder blade,” Johnson said. “Right now, it is perfectly parallel, clubface is in a great position. This is a major change that he’s implemented in (less than) 12 months.”

As a measure of his improvement, Fowler has rediscovered his old magic and climbed back to No. 22 in the world. He held a share of the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open last month and ended his more than four-year winless drought in Detroit. Fowler calls links golf his favorite golf and is poised to make a run at the British Open a decade after he got his first lesson from Harmon. A win on Sunday at Royal Liverpool would be the biggest thing to happen in these parts since the Beatles. But it takes a different breed to close out a major and Johnson questions if Fowler has “the killer instinct.”

“I don’t think he’s willing to do whatever it takes to beat you,” Wagner said on The Five Clubs podcast. “Even when he won Rocket Mortgage, he made that putt in a playoff and he just kind of stood there with a relieved look. Give me a fist pump, give me some fire.”

But the Champion Golfer of the Year has been a first-time major winner in four of the last six years, and where talented players such as David Duval, Darren Clarke and Henrik Stenson who hadn’t been able to get over the hump were finally able to break through. Fowler could be next – especially now that Harmon is no longer making him look bad, but once again good.