After a first round full of surprises and a frustrating 18th hole for several players, the second round was over 2023 British Open is underway at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.
Three golfers begin Friday at the top of the leaderboard, but the headliner on Thursday was amateur Christo Lamprecht, who is one of the leaders in the last major tournament in 2023. Starting the second round in a tie for first with Lamprecht, the Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and Emiliano Grillo from Argentina. Weather conditions for the morning could also be worse than the first round, making it a challenging day as players look to make the cut.
Follow USA TODAY Sports for all the action from the second round of the Open Championship from Royal Liverpool:
Protesters disrupt play at British Open
The Just Stop Oil protesters came to the 17th hole and one of them threw what looked like orange paint or powder, which landed on the side of the green. Three protesters were immediately taken away by the police in a golf cart.
LIVE LEADERBOARD: The Open Championship Tournament Leaderboard results, schedules, pairings and more
Just Stop Oil has been known to disrupt sporting events, such as Premier League football matches, and on Thursday spray-painted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Harman’s hot start gives him an outright lead
Brian Harman shot out to a second-round lead after making four consecutive birdies on the front nine and currently holds a three-shot lead at 8-under after saving par on 12 with an incredible chip shot from the rough. He is ahead of Tommy Fleetwood and amateur Christo Lamprecht, who has yet to tee off.
Emiliano Grillo has moved to 4-under after a nice birdie on 13, and Min Woo Lee is starting to make noise after a nice shot on 16 to move to 3-under.
The first ace of the tournament
The first hole-in-one of the British Open came on the par-3 17th at Royal Liverpool, set to 132 yards. While Lucas Herbert had a chance for an easy score to jump back into the tournament, he triple-bogeyed the hole in the first round, but during Friday’s round, Travis Smyth did well on the hole, especially after a bogey on the previous hole. Symth finishes the round with a 1-over 72, good for 8-over. Smyth’s chances of making the cut are slim.
How to watch the 2023 Open Championship
Coverage starts Friday at 1:30 a.m. ET on the Peacock streaming service. USA Network will have live television coverage at 4am to 3pm, with Peacock resuming coverage until 4 p.m
Golfers can be followed on live stream at Peacock from 1:30 to 4 in the morning and from 15:00 to 16:00
What is the weather forecast for Friday?
It was a mostly dry start to the tournament, but Friday is not so promising with a few light to moderate showers likely in the morning before sunshine in the afternoon. Temperatures are expected to be about the same as Thursday, and gusts around 15 mph could begin in the morning and continue to increase in the afternoon.
PGA Championship tee times, groupings for Friday
The action begins early in the US, with the first round starting at 1:35 ET. Start times will roll to 11:16 with 11 minute intervals between groups.
- 1:35 am: Rasmus Højgaard, Matthew Southgate, Alex Fitzpatrick
- 01:46: Daniel Hillier, Kyung Nam Kang, Kensei Hirata
- 01:57: Callum Shinkwin, Kazuki Higa, Michael Kim
- 02:08: Zack Fischer, Taichi Kho, Kyle Barker
- 2:19: Brendon Todd, Romain Langasque, Travis Smyth
- 02:30: Gary Woodland, Adrian Otaegui, Alexander Bjork
- 02:41: Min Woo Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Harrison Crowe (a)
- 02:52: Corey Conners, Billy Horschel, Alex Noren
- 03:03: Tom Kim, Tom Hoge, Abraham Ancer
- 3:14 a.m.: Zach Johnson, Matt Wallace, David Micheluzzi
- 03:25: Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Dustin Johnson
- 03:36: Francesco Molinari, Denny McCarthy, Mateo Fernandez De Oliveira (a)
- 03:47: Brian Harman, Thriston Lawrence, Thomas Detry
- 04:03: John Daly, Taylor Moore, Danny Willett
- 4.14: David Lingmerth, Ben Griffin, Ockie Strydom
- 4:25: Adri Arnaus, Ewen Ferguson, Keita Nakajima
- 4:36: Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im, Joaquin Niemann
- 4:47: Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas
- 4:58: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose
- 05:09: Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Tyrrell Hatton
- 05:20: Phil Mickelson, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk
- 05:31: Nacho Elvira, Marc Warren, Alejandro Cañizares
- 5:42: Guido Migliozzi, Oliver Wilson, Connor McKinney
- 5:53: Kalle Samooja, Shubhankar Sharma, Gunner Wiebe
- 6:04: Jorge Campillo, Brandon Robinson Thompson, Michael Stewart
- 6:15: Hurly Long, Seungsu Han, Marco Penge
- 6:36: Matthew Jordan, Richie Ramsay, Branden Grace
- 6:47: Russell Henley, Jazz Janewattananond, Graeme Robertson (a)
- 6:58: Ryan Fox, Lucas Herbert, Byeong Hun An
- 7:09: Hoshino, Charl Schwartzel, Alex Maguire (a)
- 7:20: Adrian Meronk, Pablo Larrazabal, Hiroshi Iwata
- 7:31: Patrick Reed, Connor Syme, Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (a)
- 7:42: Darren Clarke, Victor Perez, Thomas Pieters
- 7:53: Louis Oosthuizen, Joost Luiten, Christo Lamprecht (a)
- 8:04: Stewart Cink, JT Poston, Trey Mullinax
- 8:15: Henrik Stenson, Harris English, Andrew Putnam
- 8:26: Scott Stallings, Jordan Smith, Thorbjorn Olesen
- 8:37: Ernie Els, Kurt Kitayama, Takumi Kanaya
- 8:48: Sam Burns, Sepp Straka, Chris Kirk
- 9:04: Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jason Day
- 9.15am: Padraig Harrington, Seamus Power, Talor Gooch
- 9:26: KH Lee, Davis Riley, Taiga Semikawa
- 9:37: Patrick Cantlay, Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama
- 9:48: Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott
- 9:59: Cameron Smith, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark
- 10.10am: Shane Lowry, Rickie Fowler, Robert MacIntyre
- 10:21 a.m.: Cameron Young, Si Woo Kim, Bryson DeChambeau
- 10:32: Nicolai Højgaard, Bio Kim, Kazuki Yasumori
- 10:43: Dan Bradbury, Oliver Farr, Haydn Barron
- 10:54: Marcel Siem, Martin Rohwer, Tiger Christensen (a)
- 11:05: Lee Hodges, Antoine Rozner, Richard Bland
- 11:16: Yannik Paul, Sami Välimäki, Laurie Canter
Who is Christo Lamprecht?
The surprise of the first round, Christo Lamprecht had just two bogeys in his first round as he powered his way to the top of the leaderboard at 5-under par.
A senior golfer at Georgia Tech, the South Africa native is one of the tallest players in the tournament at 6-foot-8. The 22-year-old is believed to be the tallest golfer in Georgia Tech history.
He qualified for The Open after winning the amateur championship last month and has enjoyed a successful amateur career as he led the international team to beat Team USA at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup. At this year’s Arnold Palmer Cup, he lost three of four matches as Team USA won.
Regardless of how Lamprecht fares in England, it won’t be the last time you see him at a major; due to his victory in the Amateur Championship, he qualified for the 2024 Masters and the 2024 US Open.
18. proved difficult to close the gap on Royal Liverpool
Taichi Kho was in one of the greenside bunkers on Royal Liverpool’s closing par 5 in two shots on Thursday during the first round of the 2023 Open Championship.
It took him eight shots (with a penalty in there) to get the ball in the cup. Almost pin high in two shots, eight more before he went off the green.
The 18th at Royal Liverpool is proving to be one of the trickier closing holes in recent major championship history and it looks like it could provide a huge swing down the stretch on Sunday.
Kho was not spared and carded a 10.
Players will compete for the record purse at the 2023 Open Championship
The R&A announced the prize money payouts for the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, 19-23. July, where the 2023 Champion Golfer of the Year will receive the highest earnings in championship history.
The man who hoists the Claret Jug at the end of the week will walk away with $3 million, while second ($1,708,000) and third ($1,095,000) will also make seven figures. The total purse will be $16.5 million, an 18% increase from 2022. – Adam Woodard, Golfweek