From leading The Open to the Silver Medal – Christo Lamprecht has learned life lessons at Hoylake
By Matt Coles
From a 66 on Thursday to winning the Silver Medal on Sunday, there’s been a range of emotions for Christo Lamprecht at The Open/strong>
Christo Lamprecht’s learned plenty about the highs and lows of major tournament golf. From an incredible opening 66 to lead the championship, to only just making the cut after an eight-over-par second round, it’s been a week “with every bit of emotion felt”.
But the 22-year-old still joined a pantheon of greats – including Tiger Woods, Jose Maria Olazabal, and Justin Rose – in winning The Open’s Silver Medal as the championship’s low amateur.
“Coming off the high of Thursday and just not having it the last three days. I didn’t control the golf ball nearly as well as I wanted to, or as I know I can be,” he said.
“It was disappointing but standing here, being the last amateur standing and being the Silver Medallist this afternoon, it puts a smile back on my face.
“I wasn’t really goal orientated. Obviously it is a nice achievement to have and I am very proud of it. It wasn’t a goal per se, but it is pretty nice to finish off the week like that.”
Lamprecht has become the first South African to win the Silver Medal and the Amateur Champion, who will play the Masters and US Open next year, says he will be disappointed if he doesn’t have plenty of takeaways from his week in Hoylake.
“If I don’t take a lot of lessons away from this week then I haven’t achieved my goal of being here and wanting to play in the majors as an amateur,” he added.
“If I don’t take at least five lessons from this week, I will be disappointed with myself. There are a lot of things to take away, but it is nice to know that my good golf is good enough to compete with anyone in the world.
“That is something really nice to take away from this week, and it motivates me to keep on playing better golf and to keep on practising.
“Obviously you get different course conditions but I think links golf is similar wherever you go. You have to stay out of the pot bunkers.
“I didn’t hit my driver well this week and I paid the price. If my driver went straight this week, I could have really take advantage of the golf course. A lot of lessons will be learnt but I need time to reflect on that.”
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Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
