Past winners at Hoylake have included local players Harold Hilton and John Ball, the greatest amateur to play the game Bobby Jones and the trailblazing Argentinian Roberto De Vincenzo.
Tommy Fleetwood isn’t a Royal Liverpool product like Hilton and Ball, but hailing from Southport 45 minutes’ drive away he has certainly been adopted as a favourite son, while South Africa’s Christo Lamprecht won the recent Amateur Championship at nearby Hillside. Emiliano Grillo won this year as well, at Colonial where De Vincenzo claimed victory.
After day one, all three are tied for the lead at five-under-par.
Lamprecht was the first to reach the mark after heading out with countryman and Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen and Dutchman Joost Luiten.
Notable for his 6-foot-8 height, the South African made three birdies in four holes over the front nine to turn…