McIlroy and Power best of Irish as amateur Lamprecht leads Open

Rory McIlroy and Seamus Power were the Irish pace setters on day one of the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool where amateur champion Christo Lamprecht is in a share of the lead at Royal Liverpool.

Roared on by a partisan crowd at Royal Liverpool, Tommy Fleetwood carded an opening 66 to share the clubhouse lead with South African Lamprecht and Argentina's Emiliano Grillo on five-under par.

Antoine Rozner, Adrian Otaegui and Brian Harman were all a shot behind, with former champion Stewart Cink - who denied Tom Watson a fairytale victory in 2009 - part of a group on three under which included US Open champion Wyndham Clark.

McIlroy endured a frustrating start to his latest quest to reclaim the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool with a mixed round featuring three birdies and three bogeys.

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It might even have been worse after he found a greenside bunker at the par-five 18th and needed two shots to escape the sand trap.

Yet he held his nerve to save par from 10 feet and keep himself within five strokes of joint-leaders Tommy Fleetwood, Emiliano Grillo and Lamprecht.

"You are just hoping to make par somehow and get out of there," said McIlroy of the final hole.

"I got lucky because that ball could have gone into a deeper part of my footprints and I could have been there all night. It was a really good par in the end.

"I was probably hoping for a bit more at the start of the day but, overall, two over through 12 - to get it back to even for the day, I'm pretty pleased with that.

"I could have let that round get away from me but I didn't with the two birdies on the back nine."

Power carded 14 pars en route to a steady 71. The Waterford native, whose best major finish was tied-9th at last year's PGA Championship,