OOSTHUIZEN PROUD TO SEE EX-ACADEMY PLAYER SHARING OPEN LEAD

Louis Oosthuizen isn’t exactly sure how old Christo Lamprecht was when the two first met. Probably 14, possibly 15. It happened in 2015 when Lamprecht joined the Louis57 Junior Golf Academy in South Africa.

One thing Oosthuizen is certain of, however – he had to look up whenever the two stood face to face.

“Oh, yeah,” said the 5-foot-9 captain of LIV Golf’s all-South African Stinger GC. “He was always tall.”

Lamprecht is now 22 years old. He’s 6-8, easily making him the tallest player in this week’s Open Championship field. You can’t miss him – and you certainly can’t miss his name on the leaderboard. It’s at the top, tied with England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo at 5 under after the first round at Royal Liverpool.

Fleetwood’s position isn’t a surprise; he’s long been on the list of best players without a major. Grillo has won multiple times as a pro and making his 23rd major start. Lamprecht’s position is unexpected. After all, he’s still an amateur, having recently finished his junior season at Georgia Tech. The last amateur to lead the first round of an Open played at Royal Liverpool was another Georgia Tech player – Bobby Jones in 1930.

“The way I played today, I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard,” Lamprecht said. “It's not a cocky thing to say. I just personally think I believe in myself, and I guess stepping on to the first tee box if you're a professional or a competitor, you should be believing that you should be the best standing there.

“Yeah, I'm very proud of it. I'm a little bit surprised, obviously, naturally, but I played good golf today.”

Perhaps one of the few people not surprised by Lamprecht’s play Thursday is Oosthuizen. Oosthuizen is well aware of Lamprecht’s abilities, and what he saw in the first round – the two are paired in the same group – offered confirmation. So did the fact that Lamprecht was eight strokes better than Oosthuizen’s 3-over 74.

“He did everything right,” Oosthuizen said. “He hit the ball really well and then when he was in trouble, he sort of just got himself back in play. He rolls the ball beautiful on the greens, so it was fun to watch. …

“He's got a great demeanor. Great kid. I mean, he's very patient – he's got game.”

Lamprecht said he benefitted from having Oosthuizen as one of his playing partners. He isn’t sure it was just coincidence that his mentor was assigned the same tee time.

“I think that helped a lot to my score today,” Lamprecht said, citing Oosthuizen as one of his favorite players. “I think having someone that I know very well and is a ginormous mentor for me that I've played previously with kind of helped me feel a little bit more at home and at ease.

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

More beneficial, of course, was coming up through Oosthuizen’s junior academy program. Founded in 2009 – a year before Oosthuizen won the Open – the Louis57 Academy encourages and supports youngsters in South African to play golf, and those who show a keen interest receive advanced coaching and additional support. It's a key element of Oosthuizen's Louis57 Foundation.

“We’ve got lots of tiers we go through,” Oosthuizen explained. “Depends what type of player you are. Some at the beginning level we go to schools and try and find someone that can play, can swing a club. Other than that, yeah, resources and just making sure they have a routine and things they do and get as much exposure as they can.

“If they go and play, obviously try and help them with that. We started the foundation pretty small, the academy. It was just local area, just in the Southern Cape back in 2009. We grew pretty quick after my Open win.

“Finding anyone that can come through and eventually turn pro and make a success of it is just a dream come true for us.”

Lamprecht was a unique case, if only because of his height, a hereditary gift from his dad (6-4), his grandfather (6-8) and his great grandfather (7-foot). His significant growth spurts came at about the same time he started participating in the Louis57 Academy.

“I didn't know what was going on. I was changing clubs every six months,” Lamprecht said. “… I was growing so fast, and my swing changed every week, and it was all over the place for like two years there.

“I guess once I kind of finally got to a certain length where I didn't grow that much more and got a little bit more mature, I figured out where to go.”

The victories in South Africa started to pile up for Lamprecht, who won the South African Amateur in 2017, the youngest champion in a tournament that’s been held since 1931. Consider this stretch of wins in 2019: the Oubaai Open on July 17, the Pezula Junior Open on July 29, the George Junior Open on Aug. 13, the Knysna Junior Open on Oct. 14, and the George Open on Nov. 19.

He then accepted a scholarship at Georgia Tech in 2020 and became an All-American. He’s currently third in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. And now he shares the lead at the Open Championship – an achievement that Oosthuizen and everybody else associated with the Louis57 Academy can certainly celebrate.

“It's great because it shows us we're doing the right things, what we're doing with the youngsters coming through the ranks,” Oosthuizen said. “It's great to see them. … It just shows us that we're on the right track and keep doing what we're doing.

“GolfRSA is doing a great job bringing these kids to lots of tournaments and helping them prepare probably way better than we prepared when we were that age. It's really nice to see.”

But Lamprecht may soon face a difficult decision: Does he remain an amateur, or will this week prompt him to turn pro? If the first round is any indication, he can hold his own against the world’s elite golfers.

Oosthuizen has provided plenty of help and guidance for Lamprecht through the years, but on this subject, the answer is only from within.

“I always feel the player itself will know when he's ready, I think,” Oosthuizen said. “I don't know if he's going to play much more amateur golf. I do not know. But you will know when you're ready. You'll definitely know. If you feel like, ‘Man, I don't really want to play more amateur events, I want to try as a pro,’ then do it.

“I think it's too personal. It's not something I can tell him no, you're not ready or you are ready. That's how I felt when I turned professional.”

That happened in 2002. Eight years later, Oosthuizen lifted the Claret Jug. Perhaps Lamprecht will need only three more days before he lifts his own Jug. If he does, it’ll be much higher in the sky.