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Masters Week with Christo Lamprecht - Round 1

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Amateur Insights from Augusta: Christo Lamprecht

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprecht played an impressive opening nine holes in his debut round at the Masters Tournament Thursday, getting to 3-under-par through his first eight holes. But he gave the strokes back with consecutive birdies at 9-10-11. He birdied the par-5 13th hole to get back into red figures, but made triple-bogey at the par-5 15th after spinning his approach shot off the green and into the water fronting the green. He parred in from there for a 2-over-par 74.

Watch video of very shot in Lamprecht’s opening round

ONE BAD HOLE CAN’T DETER GEORGIA TECH’S LONG-DRIVING LAMPRECHT

Christo Lamprecht created a few gasps on the first tee at the Masters on Thursday. The 6-foot-8 amateur from Georgia Tech, hitting last in his three-man pairing, launched his first drive 353 yards. The patrons – at least the ones who could see that far – couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed.

It was the first of many long-distance tee shots for Lamprecht, the 2023 British Amateur champion and No. 1-ranked amateur in the world. He opened his first Masters with a 2-over 74. Thirteen of his 14 tee shots on the gusty afternoon carried at least 300 yards. His driving distance for the first round averaged 327.9 yards.

“I drove it pretty well today,” Lamprecht said. “I had one bad tee shot in my opinion, but drove it really well, played really good golf. I felt like I deserved a better score than what I got, to be fair. But I was pleased with the round.”

Lamprecht said there were fewer exposed nerves than there were last summer at British Open at Royal Liverpool, which he led after the first round. The wobble factor was definitely lower.

“I couldn’t feel my legs at the Open,” he said “And I was really confident (Thursday) on the first tee. I felt good about it, obviously hit a great tee shot, too. Kind of knowing a little bit more about it really helped me a lot.”

More from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

BIG-HITTING AMATEUR ROCKETS FIRST TWO DRIVES MORE THAN 700 YARDS

The Masters may have started a little late, but the delay didn’t seem to bother amateur Christo Lamprecht … at least when it came to his opening two drives. The 6-foot-8 23-year-old put everything he had (and then some) into his first two tee shots, and boy did it show.

Lamprecht doesn’t have the experience of playing partners Charl Schwartzel and Luke List at Augusta National (he’s a rookie who qualified by winning the British Amateur) but none of that mattered as the big-hitter powered the golf ball 353 and 366 yards, respectively, with his tee shots on the first and second holes. That’s a combined 719 yards, one yard less than six football fields (if you’re counting the end zones).

Despite the bomb to start it all off, Lamprecht settled for par on the first hole. A birdie on the subsequent hole, the newly lengthened par-5 second, helped to justify the South African’s length, however.

 

Photos by Kohjiro Kinno, Chloe Knott and Thomas Lovelock of Augusta National Golf Club

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