The 151st Open Championship - Day one digest

Everything you need to know from day one at the final Major Championship of 2023.

Fleetwood delighted the home fans, Lamprecht flew the flag for the amateurs, Jordan enjoyed a special day and technology was not Clark's friend on day one of The 151st Open Championship.

Here is everything you need to know from Thursday at Royal Liverpool.

Fleetwood among leading trio

Home hero Tommy Fleetwood fired a 66 to share the lead with Emiliano Grillo and amateur Christo Lamprechtafter round one. The Amateur Champion made all the early headlines on Merseyside as he set the target but Fleetwood came home in 32 to join him at the top. It looked for most of the afternoon like it would be a two-way tie at the top but Grillo had other ideas and he recovered from two early bogeys with a back nine of 31 to also get to five under. Spaniard Adrian Otaegui, Frenchman Antoine Rozner and American Brian Harman were a shot off the lead, one clear of Swede Alex Noren, India's Shubhankar Sharma, Scot Michael Stewart, 2009 winner Stewart Cink, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and another American in Max Homa.

Fleetwood loving home support

Fleetwood was revelling in having some vociferous home support as he carded his brilliant 66. The Englishman - who was born just up the road from Royal Liverpool in Southport - had huge crowds following him and he repaid them with his lowest opening round in the oldest Major Championship. “If you’re not going to enjoy this atmosphere and these experiences then what’s the point?" he said. "Make sure you have the time of your life out there. Being this close to home is the coolest thing and I’m so grateful to everyone that cheers me on. I am one of them, one of the guys that's out there. I'm a fan of the game. I'm from this area. Yes I feel at home and to feel that support, it means a lot."

Amateur Lamprecht enjoys "surreal" day

Amateur Champion Lamprecht said it was "surreal" to see his name at the top of the leaderboard. Just a few weeks ago and less than 30 miles from Royal Liverpool, Lamprecht won The Amateur Championship at Hillside to earn his place in the field this week and the 22-year-old South African grabbed all of the early headlines on day one. "I'm extremely pleased and proud of myself," he said. "I was walking up and got the applause from everyone. I looked up at leaderboard and saw my name at the top and I turned to my caddie and said 'how cool is this?'. It's pretty surreal. It's nice to see a lot of work behind the scenes pay off. It's something I haven't dreamt of yet, but it's pretty cool."

Home hero Jordan has the honour

Matthew Jordan was struggling to think of a better experience after carding an opening 69 in front of friends and family at his home course. The Englishman, who has been a member of Royal Liverpool since he was seven years old, had the honour of hitting the opening tee shot this week after earning his place in the field through Final Qualifying. There was a big crowd of home fans joining friends and family to watch and cheer him on at the early hour of 6.35am, and he said: "That was the coolest thing I've ever experienced. One of the best feelings ever. I'm kind of running out of words to describe it. It was crazy, mental, loud, everything that I could have wished for. I'm certainly trying to think of a better experience than that, and I don't think I can."

Shot of the week already?

Would you ever think of doing this? Bravo Sepp Straka.

The perils of technology

U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark saw the funny side after an unfortunate deflection off someone’s tablet device led to an embarrassing fluffed shot. The 29-year-old American got his feet tangled and hardly moved the ball from thick rough on the 14th hole but the ball had landed there after a wayward tee shot took a ricochet. Asked if the person he hit was all right, Clark said: “Yes, it hit his iPad, didn’t hit him.” That question was then followed up with another about the state of the electronic item. Laughing, Clark added: “I don’t care now. It screwed me up!” It did leave him in a nasty spot.............

Beware Little Eye

There has been a lot of talk about the 17th this week and it seems it is all justified when a class player and three-time DP World Tour winner like Lucas Herbert makes a six.

Making it look easy

This shot would be terrifying for most. Not Rory McIlroy - unreal.