He might not have won, but his final round of six-under-par 66 on Sunday in the Korn Ferry Tour’s The Ascendant presented by Blue at TPC Colorado in Berthoud, Colorado gave enough notice that Christo Lamprecht has found his feet in the grind that is professional golf.
He made just his first cut in his fourth attempt on the tour, and his second round of eight-under 64 served notice that he has all the abilities his former number one status on the world amateur rankings suggested.
While he was shaky in his third round of level-par, the way he recovered from an opening double-bogey on his first hole in the final round showed the stuff he’s made of. He regained those lost strokes with an eagle-two on the third, and then he made four birdies in a row from the fourth hole onwards.
He didn’t drop another shot, but picked up just two more birdies on the homeward nine as he moved to 16-under-par for the tournament and a share of fifth place.
In the end, his opening two-under 70 and that second round cost him a tilt at the title, but at least he’s on the board after his strangely-timed decision to turn pro before he was able to take up the place he had earned as an amateur in the US Open.
At 128th on the Korn Ferry Tour rankings, and with only eight tournaments left before the Korn Fery Tour Championship, Lamprecht will be looking for more weeks like he had in Colorado – only maybe a little better.
The tournament was won at 22-under-par by Chile’s Cristobal Del Solar, who had a four-stroke advantage over runners-up Brian Campbell and Matthew Riedel of the United States.
