The Amateur Championship gets under way at Royal Lytham and St Annes Old Links today and golfnews24 managing editor Mark Flanagan is reporting live from Royal Lytham throughout the day
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5.00pm: Reaction here from Jamie Roberts (Muckhart GC) after his superb 66 at Royal Lytham. First man at the main venue to go finish 4 under and a great start to the week for the 20-year-old.
4.34pm: REACTION COMING IN FROM LEADER LUDVIG ÅBERG AFTER HIS ROUND OF 65 at ST ANNES OLD LINKS…
Q. Seven under to start your campaign here at The Amateur Championship. You must be very pleased?
LA: It was a fun day. I was actually expecting the wind to be a little bit more today but it was fun. It’s a nice track out here at St. Annes and looking forwards to Lytham tomorrow.
Q. Highlight was the eagle on 18. Can you talk us through that?
LA: Yeah, 18 is a reachable par 5 today. So I ended up flighting my second shot a little bit right of the green but caught a pretty good lie and ended up chipping that in. That was a nice bonus to the day, probably around 20, 25 yards, something like that.
Q. A bit of excitement when you saw that one go?
LA: Oh yeah, for sure, it’s nice to end on a good note and especially chipping in like that yeah.
Q. Even nicer that we caught it on camera, so are you looking forward to watching that highlight?
LA: Yeah, I’ll try to watch it later, yeah.
Q. You’re highest-ranked player in the field this week. Does that bring any pressure coming into a championship like that?
LA: I think it is what you say it’s going to be. I feel like I’ve been worked hard to get to where I am and it’s more of a testament to me doing some good stuff. Yeah, people will obviously expect to you play well and luckily I did today.
Q. Now, what’s the goal from here for the rest of the week?
LA: First and foremost, you always want to get through the first two rounds of stroke play and then in match play, everything can happen, especially in links golf. I tried to play this last year and wasn’t able to and tried to play the year before and wasn’t able to. So my first time here since 2019, so excited to keep the week going and play more links golf.
Q. The goal is to qualify through the first two rounds. Posting a nice score today, does that take some of the pressure off heading to Lytham tomorrow?
LA: Oh, sure, Lytham is such a hard course, that any time you can give yourself a little bit of an advantage coming into that round tomorrow afternoon is going to be helpful. Really happy where I am right now and hopefully keep it going.
Q. You’re obviously part of the Swedish golf team and you have a legend of Swedish golf joining you guys, Peter Hanson. What’s it like having him out there cheering you on and mentoring you?
LA: It’s great. Peter has had such a long and successful career on the tours, and his experiences together with coaching, it’s just going to be great for us players. He’s sitting on a whole lot of knowledge that we don’t know about, so I’m really excited about getting to know him better.
Q. Is there anything in particular that you’re hoping to pick his brains about or trying to learn from him?
LA: I think there’s a lot. I have one more year left in amateur golf, so just the whole kind of transitioning to pro golf. There’s always some nuggets that you can catch up on, whether it’s travel, practice, play tournament golf courses. So it will be fun.
4.16pm: An impressive effort from Hornsea’s Jack Maxey today. He posts the joint lowest round at Royal Lytham (-2) so far having been -6 thru 14. The finish is so tough and here is the Yorkshire player hitting an excellent approach pin high out of the rough at 16. He would just miss the birdie putt.
4.13pm: The Scoreboard is back at the Amateur and World No 2 Ludvig Åberg shoes his class with a seven under par round at St Annes Old Links. Leading comfortably but conditions are better this afternoon. The wind has dropped significantly.
3.48pm: How many of these do you remember? A special cabinet with some special clubs from all the post-war Lytham Open champions. PS sorry for the lack off score updates. The R&A’s new website hasn’t gone too well. There has been no live scoring for the past 90 minutes.
2.10pm: This is what can happen when you hit the clubhouse at Royal Lytham. Scotland’s Callum Bruce (Duff House Royal) chips up the 18th green after his second hits the famous red brickwork, rebounding back 60 yards off the front. He would bogey it and finish with a 77.
1.12pm: A wild drive at the second from Otto Van Buynder of South Africa and he has to clear a lot of rubbish to get anywhere close to the pin. He would double bogey the hole and he was +5 over after 6.
1.09pm: There are 42 countries represented at this year’s Amateur Championship, including plenty from Asia. Yuki Moriyama of Japan hits this approach on 18 after a stunning drive. It finishes 16 feet from the pin and he would par it on his way to a closing par and an opening 76 (+4).
12.58pm: The 16th is not long but picking your spot from the tee is so tough. Crail’s Andrew Davidson sends his drive up the left on his way to a par and he would finish on +4. Highly respectable.
12.52pm: It is really tough going at Royal Lytham and it is already entirely conceivable that no one will break par. Hornsea’s Jack Maxey (-2 thru 6) has a chance but the back 9 is proving so tough.
11.28am: The first group have reached 18 and this view never gets boring. Home player Callan Barrow just misses the fairway on the right on his way to a closing par. The Lancashire star records a very solid 74 (+2). Not so good for Scotland’s John Paterson (+13).
10.27am: Friday’s pre-qualifier at St Annes Old Links suggested there might be more birdies there than at Royal Lytham and the early scores suggest that too. Only 2 players at Lytham are under par so far in good scoring conditions. It’s windy but blowing a steady 15mph. Those playing at St Annes have a blue line by their name.
10.00am: We could have some fun and games on 18 today Royal Lytham as golfnews24 editor Mark Flanagan explains…
9.54am: Another Lancastrian with a big chance Jack Brooks almost holes from off the green at the first. The Bolton-based player gets under way with a comfortable par.
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9.05am: A strong Scandanavian presence at The Amateur this week and two of their big hopes make an impressive start with Mats Ege hitting it in close at the first and holing the birdie putt while Michael Mjaaseth, runner-up at the Spanish Amateur, gets up and down in impressive fashion at the first.
7.15am: We are under way at Royal Lytham with member Callan Barrow the only player in the first group to find the putting surface at the first. Schmuecking goes way left and Paterson just misses on the right.