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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