World number three Jon Rahm drew first blood at the 151st Open Championship – but not in the way he intended after a fan sustained a head injury from one of his errant shots.

The Masters champion sprayed his tee shot at the 12th into the gallery where it struck a man close to his right temple and left him with blood streaming down the side of his face.

By the time Rahm arrived on the scene the spectator was already receiving treatment but the Spaniard then discovered there was insult to add to the injury he had inflicted as his ball had ricocheted into the nearby bunker and was so close to the face he had no option but to play out back towards the tee.

“How are you?” asked the Ryder Cup star. “OK. How’s your lie?” replied the fan. “It’s terrible,” was Rahm’s response.

More pain was to follow for the golfer at least as he could only bogey the 442-yard par-four and that dropped him to one over.

Tommy Fleetwood rode a wave of home support to the top of the leaderboard in pursuit of a first major title in the 151st Open Championship.

Roared on by a partisan crowd at Royal Liverpool, the 32-year-old from Southport carded an opening 66 to share the clubhouse lead with South African amateur Christo Lamprecht and Emiliano Grillo on five under par.

France’s Antoine Rozner and Spain’s Adrian Otaegui were a shot behind, with former champion Stewart Cink – who denied Tom Watson a fairytale victory at Turnberry in 2009 – on three under alongside US Open champion Wyndham Clark and Alex Noren.

Fleetwood revelled in the support of the large galleries in what will be an emotional week, with Friday marking the first anniversary of the death of his mother Sue.

“It really was a great day,” Fleetwood said after a round containing six birdies and a solitary bogey.

“To get that support all day was amazing. If you’re not going to enjoy this atmosphere and these experiences then what’s the point? 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. To feel that support, it means a lot.

“Of course throughout the day, you can easily put too much pressure on yourself. You can easily try too hard. But just having that support and people egging you on just pushes you on.”

Fleetwood has yet to register a win this season despite some excellent performances, including carding a 63 in the final round of the US Open for the second time in his career.

He also lost out in a play-off in the RBC Canadian Open when home favourite Nick Taylor holed from 72 feet for an eagle on the fourth extra hole.

“It’s much better having good results than getting kicked in the teeth all the time when you feel like you’re working so hard and you’re doing the right things,” he added.

“I enjoy the game, and I enjoy trying to get better. At the moment we’re obviously in this period where I have to be patient and trusting in what we’re doing.

“There’s times where it could go either way, and it hasn’t gone my way yet. Hopefully it’ll be my turn soon.”

Lamprecht carded seven birdies and two bogeys in his 66, the 6ft 8in 22-year-old having qualified by winning the Amateur Championship at nearby Hillside a month ago.

“It’s pretty surreal to be leading. (But) I think I earned my spot to be here,” Lamprecht said. “I think the way I played today I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard, as of now.

“It’s not a cocky thing to say. I just personally think I believe in myself and I guess stepping on to the first tee box, if you’re a professional or a competitor, you should be believing that you should be the best standing there.”

Royal Liverpool member Matthew Jordan struck the opening tee shot at 6.35am and enjoyed massive support as he carded an opening 69 matched by three-time major winner Jordan Spieth.

“Amazing. I’m kind of running out of words to describe it,” Jordan said of the reception he received. “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.”

The controversial new 17th hole claimed its first victim, with Lucas Herbert, joint-leader at the time on three under, making a triple-bogey at the 126-yard par three.

Herbert missed the green to the left, chipped across the putting surface into a bunker, left his next in the sand and eventually finished with a six.

Rory McIlroy, who lifted the Claret Jug here in 2014, was among the later starters and battling to avoid a damaging start, the four-time major winner covering his first 14 holes in one over par.

Sports stars and clubs across the world continue to provide an insight into their lives on social media.

Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the best examples from July 20.

Arsenal off to winning start in pre-season.

Kai Havertz finally scored a volley!

Liverpool were also up and running.

Manchester City were back in training.

Manchester United headed for America.

Paul Mullin was 1-0 down.

Alex Morgan geared up for the Women’s World Cup.

Ian Wright was excited by VAR!

Jack Butland was honoured.

Mesut Ozil was reminiscing about El Clasico.

A post shared by Mesut Özil (@m10_official)

Return of the Matt!

Tony Finau showed his colours.

Zak Crawley scored a century.

England celebrated their new number three’s effort against Australia.

Entertainment on and off the pitch at Old Trafford.

Stan was grateful.

Chris Eubank Jr made a promise.

Three-time world champion Bianca Walkden goes under the knife.

Oisin Murphy made a triumphant return from his spell on the sidelines when guiding Ed Dunlop’s No Surrender to victory at Leicester.

Murphy was last seen in the saddle when partnering Chaldean at Deauville on July 9, with the rider subsequently serving an eight-day suspension for a whip offence at Royal Ascot – a ban which saw him miss out on Shaquille’s July Cup success at Newmarket last week.

The three-times champion jockey was out of luck in a photo in the opener, but was not for passing aboard the appropriately named No Surrender, who was sent off at 6-1 in the William Hill Lengthen Your Odds EBF Novice Stakes.

Having sent his mount straight to the front, the son of Gleneagles had plenty in reserve to hold off the odds-on favourite Spectacular Style for three-quarter-length success.

“I was second in the first, beaten a head and I was delighted Ed Dunlop entrusted me with this guy,” said Murphy.

“He was very straightforward and enjoyed the trip and improved from his first start.”

Explaining the ride, Murphy added: “I wanted to get out from stall one, I didn’t want to be trapped down the rail going steady, so I got him out and he enjoyed himself out in front.

“I had a horse that pricked his ears and filled himself up. I got going early enough, but he was always looking round and saving energy.

“Hopefully he will improve and you would like him as a type. He was beaten a long way on debut, but he was very raw and he’s clearly took a big step forward.”

Rossa Ryan was one of the main beneficiaries of Murphy’s absence, coming in for the spare ride aboard Shaquille to record his first Group One and having notched a double at Catterick on Wednesday, he was again amongst the winners with a treble.

He was immediately on the scoreboard in the opening William Hill Epic Value Nursery Handicap aboard Mick Appleby’s recent Beverley winner Eminny (2-1 favourite), before again linking up with the local handler to take the William Hill Epic Boost Classified Stakes with Boarhunt (6-1).

The treble was secured later in the afternoon when he steered Alan King’s Mount Olympus (11-2 joint-favourite) to a clear two-and-a-quarter-length success in the William Hill Extra Place Races Daily Handicap.

Ryan said: “Obviously with this, the win on Saturday and the double yesterday, it’s turned out to be a good week so far and if we could pick up a couple more towards the end of the week and the weekend, that would be great.

“The Group One winner has helped me a lot, but I’ve also had winners on horses I’ve been riding all year and they have just popped up at the right time. The timing has just been right.

“It’s been great, I’ve developed a great partnership with Mick (Appleby), Alan (King) and lot of others and hopefully it can keep going.”

John Butler’s consistent Measured Moments (9-2) bettered her third-placed effort here earlier this month to claim the William Hill Pick Your Places Fillies’ Handicap, while there was also a treble for Appleby with the Oakham handler winning the concluding William Hill In Play Racing Handicap with Twilight Jazz (7-1).

Appleby was in Cornwall celebrating his secretary’s 60th birthday, but said of the three-timer: “It was good to get the treble there at our local track.

“The two-year-old Eminny I think is a really nice horse. Hopefully she will keep on improving.

“Rossa gave his two great rides and it’s been a good day. Unfortunately I wasn’t there.”

Kasper Asgreen outsprinted the chasing peloton to take victory from a breakaway on stage 18 of the Tour de France in Bourg-en-Bresse.

The remaining sprint teams fell short on the 185km stage from Moutiers as a four-strong break held on by less than 50 metres, with Asgreen beating fellow escapees Pascal Eenkhoorn and Jonas Abrahamsen to take his first career Tour stage win.

Jasper Philipsen, hoping to add to his four stage wins in this first opportunity for the quick men in over a week, came home in fourth. There was perhaps some karma in that, given the aggressive tactics Philipsen had used earlier in the stage when trying to block Eenkhoorn’s bid to join the breakaway.

The 185km stage from Moutiers brought no changes at the top of the general classification, in which defending champion Jonas Vingegaard took an all-but-unassailable seven-and-a-half minute lead over Tadej Pogacar on Wednesday.

This slightly lumpy stage offered the prospect of a breakaway denying the quick men if enough riders could get up the road, although the sprinters who survived the mountains were desperate for their chance, with perhaps only the Champs-Elysees left after this.

But with exhausted legs throughout the peloton after some punishing days in the Alps only three – Asgreen, Abrahamsen and Victor Campernaerts – chanced their arm and were rarely given more than a minute’s advantage.

That short gap allowed Campernaerts’ team-mate Eenkhoorn to bridge over with 60km to go, despite being forced on to the verge by Philipsen as he tried to get away from the main bunch.

Even as a quartet the front group appeared to have little chance, but the number of teams interested in a pure sprint has been steadily diminished in this Tour with the loss of quick men Mark Cavendish, Caleb Ewan and Fabio Jakobsen, the latter two team-mates of riders in this breakaway.

Only Philipsen’s Alpecin-Deceuninck squad and Dylan Groenewegen’s Jayco-Alula seemed fully committed and, as the road narrowed into a couple of tight technical corners, it became apparent that the scales were tipping in favour of those out in front.

Asgreen came around Abrahamsen inside the final 100 metres, with the chasing Eenkhoorn unable to get on terms, earning a first stage victory of this Tour for Soudal-QuickStep, a perennial winning machine who had not reached stage 18 without cause for celebration for more than a decade.

“The situation was not ideal,” Asgreen said. “We’d have preferred to have gone with maybe six or seven (in the break) but also the last week of the Tour coming off some really, really hard days, we’ve seen it before that even a small group can manage to beat the sprint teams so I didn’t rule it out.

“It was a team time trial to the finish. I really couldn’t have done it without Pascal, Victor and Jonas. They all did amazing out there and to be honest we all deserved the win with the work we put in but I’m really happy to come away with it.

“It means so much. With the period I had in the last year since my crash at the Tour de Suisse and having to leave the Tour de France I’ve come a long way. To cap it off with victory like this I really want to dedicate it to all the people who helped me throughout the last year.”

Philipsen played down the incident involving Eenkhoorn as he congratulated the breakaway.

“For sure I wanted to sprint for the win, but they stayed away in front, good work from them,” he said.

“I just wanted to go for the sprint, not have too many guys in front, but in the end (Eenkhoorn) bridged and for sure it was the right move for him. I think we did everything we could. They had amazing legs today.”

Before the stage, Jumbo-Visma announced that Vingegaard’s team-mate Wout van Aert had left the race to return home, where his wife Sarah is expecting their second child.

US Open winner Wyndham Clark saw the funny side after claiming an unfortunate deflection off someone’s tablet device led to an embarrassing fluffed shot on day one at the Open.

The 29-year-old American, playing his first major since last month’s memorable triumph at the Los Angeles Country Club, got his feet tangled and hardly moved the ball from thick rough on the 14th hole at Royal Liverpool on Thursday.

The ball had landed there after a wayward tee shot took a ricochet.

From there a bogey five was an acceptable outcome, avoiding serious damage on his way to a three-under-par 68.

Clark said: “(I was) a little unfortunate off the tee. Obviously hitting the guy is never good, but it really went into a bad spot.

“If I didn’t hit the guy, it probably would have been in fine grass and I would have been able to hit it up near the green.

“I had an awful lie and hit it about two feet, then got very fortunate I didn’t go in the bunker.

“Getting up and down and making about a 20-footer really is a round-saver. Making that putt made me feel like I regained the momentum.”

Asked if the person he hit was all right, he told reporters: “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!”

Kasper Asgreen outsprinted the chasing peloton to take victory from a breakaway on stage 18 of the Tour de France in Bourg-en-Bresse.

The sprint teams got their sums wrong on the 185km stage from Moutiers as a four-strong break held on by less than 50 metres to take the stage, with Asgreen beating fellow escapees Pascal Eenkhoorn and Jonas Abrahamsen to take his first career Tour stage win.

Jasper Philipsen, hoping to add to his four sprint stage wins in this first opportunity for the quick men in over a week, came home in fourth having failed to make the catch.

There was perhaps some karma in that given the aggressive tactics Philipsen had used earlier in the stage when trying to block Eenkhoorn’s bid to join the breakaway.

The sprint finish to the 185km stage from Moutiers meant no changes at the top of the general classification, in which defending champion Jonas Vingegaard took an all-but-unassailable seven-and-a-half minute lead over Tadej Pogacar on Wednesday.

This slightly lumpy stage offered up the prospect of a breakaway denying the quick men if enough riders could get up the road, although the sprinters who survived the mountains were desperate for their chance, with perhaps only the Champs-Elysees left after this.

But with exhausted legs throughout the peloton after some punishing days in the Alps only three – Asgreen, Abrahamsen and Victor Campernaerts – chanced their arm and were rarely given more than a minute’s advantage.

That short gap allowed Campernaerts’ team-mate Pascal Eenkhoorn to bridge over with 60km to go, despite being forced on to the verge by Philipsen as he tried to get away from the main bunch.

Even as a quartet, the front group appeared to have little chance, but the sprint teams struggled to reel them in on the way into town, and as the road narrowed into a couple of tight technical corners, it became apparent that the scales were tipping in favour of those out in front.

Asgreen then came around Abrahamsen inside the final 100 metres with the chasing Eenkhoorn unable to get on terms.

It was a first stage victory of this Tour for Soudal-QuickStep, a perennial winning machine who had not reached stage 18 without taking a stage for more than a decade, but also a team who lost star sprinter Fabio Jakobsen to injury earlier in the race.

“The situation was not ideal,” Asgreen said. “We’d have preferred to have gone with maybe six or seven (in the break) but also the last week of the Tour coming off some really, really hard days, we’ve seen it before that even a small group can manage to beat the sprint teams so I didn’t rule it out.

“It was a team time trial to the finish. I really couldn’t have done it without Pascal, Victor and Jonas. They all did amazing out there and to be honest we all deserved the win with the work we put in but I’m really happy to come away with it.

“It means so much. With the period I had in the last year since my crash at the Tour de Suisse and having to leave the Tour de France I’ve come a long way. To cap it off with victory like this I really want to dedicate it to all the people who helped me throughout the last year.”

Ado McGuiness is preparing to send a squad of as many as 20 runners to the seven-day Galway Festival.

His team will be led by course specialist Current Option, who is searching for a fourth consecutive win in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF “Ahonoora” Handicap on the final day of the meeting.

The seven-year-old has quality form to his name having won the Concorde Stakes and the Listed Platinum Stakes previously and has registered six victories for connections.

McGuinness said: “This is a Group Three horse, and a Listed winner as well, who’s running in a handicap.

“If you drop a Group Three horse back into a handicap, he’s usually the best horse in the race and usually when you have the best horse in the race they win.

“You very often find Group Three horses running in premier handicaps off top weight and they often win them.

“I’m privileged that I have horses like Current Option who can run in premier handicaps.”

As in previous years, Current Option will once again warm up for his favoured Galway race by running in the Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap on the Tuesday beforehand.

“Current Option will run in the big mile race on the Tuesday as well as the race on the Sunday. He was placed in the mile race last year and I’ll take either. I don’t mind which one of them he wins!” McGuinness said.

“He’s quite a fresh and highly-strung horse, so if you just left him for one race he could be very fresh. Usually we target the two races with him.

“We ride him out in a hood most of the time at home. Ruby Walsh was up here a few weeks ago and he couldn’t believe he still rides out in a hood given his age but he is still as enthusiastic as ever.

“He’s in cracking form and my biggest problem I have is to try to hold his form for next two weeks. We’re looking forward to him running and just look at the form he has over there, he just loves the place.”

Saltonstall, Casanova, Sirjack Thomas, No More Porter, Hightimeyouwon, Laugh A Minute, Star Harbour, Half Nutz and Exquisite Acclaim are all pencilled in for the meeting, a fixture both McGuinness and his owners look forward to every season.

“Galway is a place where an ordinary fella can get results,” he explained. “You can have a nice, well-handicapped, horse who can do very well at Galway. An ordinary fella can make a name for himself there.

“The amount of recognition you get when you have a winner during race week at Galway is unbelievable, it’s better than three or four winners at one of the ordinary country tracks. It’s a place where you can make a name for yourself.

“I will have between 15 and 20 for the week, I’d say. You can only win the Lotto with one ticket, but the more tickets you have, the better chance you have of winning. That’s the way I look at it.”

Charlie Hills could send smart prospect Iberian to Ascot next weekend as he builds towards “bigger and better things”.

The Lope De Vega juvenile produced a sparkling debut win at Newbury, where he travelled strongly in an extended six-furlong novice and led easily with two furlongs to run.

He just had to be shaken up to score by Rossa Ryan and shot to the top of the pecking order at a yard brimming with smart youngsters.

Iberian was due to have his second start in the Group Two Superlative Stakes, won by City Of Troy, who is now favourite for next year’s 2000 Guineas.

However, the rain-softened ground saw the Teme Valley and Ballylinch Stud-owned colt withdrawn.

Hills is now eyeing the Listed Flexjet Pat Eddery Stakes over seven furlongs on the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth II Stakes card.

“We pulled him out at Newmarket because of the rain,” said Hills.

“I’m not sure where we will go, but we might look at Ascot – the Pat Eddery, what used to be known as the Winkfield Stakes.

“He is absolutely fine. He’s done well since his debut and he looks a nice horse to me.

“We will see how we go, take it one step at a time and hope he goes on to bigger and better things.”

Flanker Lewis Ludlam says England’s players are self-policing the consumption of sweet treats in a bid to be in peak condition for a shot at World Cup glory.

Steve Borthwick’s preliminary squad are in the midst of preparations for the tournament in France, which kicks off in just seven weeks’ time.

Players were last week put through their paces in the heat of Italy before returning to home soil to continue building towards next month’s four warm-up fixtures.

Northampton captain Ludlam revealed diet rules and weight monitoring have been relaxed slightly since head coach Borthwick replaced Eddie Jones.

Yet, after exclaiming he had not “seen cake in weeks” after spotting a buffet at the team’s Surrey training base, the 27-year-old insists players are not allowing each other to give in to temptation.

“The regime has changed in that it’s not as much forced upon you – you’ve got the trust to do everything the right way so we are in the best position to go and put ourselves in the best spot this World Cup,” he said.

“There’s a general feeling amongst the squad that we’ve got to be on the money and making sure we’re making decisions so we are better rugby players the next week and the next month.

“It is a good group of lads and we keep each other in check.

“There might be a birthday cake here and there but I think the lads are pretty understanding of what’s ahead of us.

“In the grand scheme of things, it is a short time in our career when we can be really on it to give ourselves the chance of creating some really special memories.”

England take on Wales home and away in early August and then face Six Nations champions Ireland in Dublin and Fiji at Twickenham before heading to France to begin their Pool D campaign against Argentina on September 9 in Marseille.

Borthwick’s appointment last December led to Saints star Ludlam being surrounded at Test level by a management team previously in charge of his club’s fierce rivals Leicester.

The 19-cap back-row forward initially found it strange setting aside hostilities and having old enemies as allies.

But he believes the England setup – led by former Tigers coaches Borthwick, Richard Wigglesworth, Aled Walters, Kevin Sinfield and Tom Harrison – is beginning to feel like a club environment.

“It was weird to get over in the beginning, especially Tom, who obviously loves Leicester and having been up against him a few times,” said Ludlam.

“Now, because we’ve been in camp for a long period of time – we don’t normally get this long period without games – it’s starting to feel like a club coming together rather than an international team where you’re only in for six weeks or whatever.

“It’s starting to come together really nicely into one unit.”

England’s final 33-man World Cup selection is due to be announced on August 7.

Injured quintet Billy Vunipola, Mako Vunipola, Ollie Lawrence, Ollie Chessum and Jack Walker, who were not included in Borthwick’s initial 41-strong training squad, are continuing their rehabilitation.

“They’re good, they’re on their programmes and working extremely hard to get themselves ready,” said scrum coach Harrison.

“Everyone’s got different timescales but they’re doing their best to be available.”

Flanker Lewis Ludlam says England’s players are self-policing the consumption of sweet treats in a bid to be in peak condition for a shot at World Cup glory.

Steve Borthwick’s preliminary squad are in the midst of preparations for the tournament in France, which kicks off in just seven weeks’ time.

Players were last week put through their paces in the heat of Italy before returning to home soil to continue building towards next month’s four warm-up fixtures.

Northampton captain Ludlam revealed diet rules and weight monitoring have been relaxed slightly since head coach Borthwick replaced Eddie Jones.

Yet, after exclaiming he had not “seen cake in weeks” after spotting a buffet at the team’s Surrey training base, the 27-year-old insists players are not allowing each other to give in to temptation.

“The regime has changed in that it’s not as much forced upon you – you’ve got the trust to do everything the right way so we are in the best position to go and put ourselves in the best spot this World Cup,” he said.

“There’s a general feeling amongst the squad that we’ve got to be on the money and making sure we’re making decisions so we are better rugby players the next week and the next month.

“It is a good group of lads and we keep each other in check.

“There might be a birthday cake here and there but I think the lads are pretty understanding of what’s ahead of us.

“In the grand scheme of things, it is a short time in our career when we can be really on it to give ourselves the chance of creating some really special memories.”

England take on Wales home and away in early August and then face Six Nations champions Ireland in Dublin and Fiji at Twickenham before heading to France to begin their Pool D campaign against Argentina on September 9 in Marseille.

Borthwick’s appointment last December led to Saints star Ludlam being surrounded at Test level by a management team previously in charge of his club’s fierce rivals Leicester.

The 19-cap back-row forward initially found it strange setting aside hostilities and having old enemies as allies.

But he believes the England setup – led by former Tigers coaches Borthwick, Richard Wigglesworth, Aled Walters, Kevin Sinfield and Tom Harrison – is beginning to feel like a club environment.

“It was weird to get over in the beginning, especially Tom, who obviously loves Leicester and having been up against him a few times,” said Ludlam.

“Now, because we’ve been in camp for a long period of time – we don’t normally get this long period without games – it’s starting to feel like a club coming together rather than an international team where you’re only in for six weeks or whatever.

“It’s starting to come together really nicely into one unit.”

England’s final 33-man World Cup selection is due to be announced on August 7.

Injured quintet Billy Vunipola, Mako Vunipola, Ollie Lawrence, Ollie Chessum and Jack Walker, who were not included in Borthwick’s initial 41-strong training squad, are continuing their rehabilitation.

“They’re good, they’re on their programmes and working extremely hard to get themselves ready,” said scrum coach Harrison.

“Everyone’s got different timescales but they’re doing their best to be available.”

Lewis Hamilton has criticised Red Bull’s decision to axe Nyck De Vries after just 10 races.

Daniel Ricciardo has been handed a second chance in Formula One, replacing De Vries at Red Bull’s junior team AlphaTauri for the concluding dozen rounds of the year, starting at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

De Vries, 28, crashed on multiple occasions and failed to score a single point, with a best finish of 12th in Monaco, before he was handed his marching orders by Red Bull’s ruthless motorsport adviser Helmut Marko 48 hours after he finished 17th and last at the British Grand Prix.

“I am not surprised to see Daniel back but I was surprised to see the decision they took for poor Nyck,” said Hamilton at the Hungaroring.

“He is such a talented young man and a nice guy. The future is bright for him and there will be opportunities for the future. But that is how Red Bull do it.”

When it was suggested to Hamilton that De Vries’ dismissal is a reminder of how F1 works, the seven-time world champion replied: “I would say that is how Red Bull work.”

Ricciardo’s career looked to be all but over after he was dumped by McLaren following two underwhelming seasons with the British team.

But the popular 34-year-old impressed in a test at Silverstone for Red Bull last Tuesday, and given Sergio Perez’s torrid run of form – which has seen him fall 99 points adrift of team-mate Max Verstappen – AlphaTauri’s move to hire the Australian will fuel speculation that he could land a return to the team which carried him to seven of his eight victories.

Speaking at the world champions’ packed motorhome earlier on Thursday, Ricciardo said: “The dream is a Red Bull seat, but there is no ‘this is what you need to do’ to achieve that.

“Given what has happened over the past few years and taking time off, I knew it would be hard to get back in at the top.

“Of course that was my wish, but you need to be realistic, and if I want to get back into Red Bull it will be a process, and this is the best path for me at the moment.

Ricciardo’s reputation in the sport is on the line following his poor period with McLaren which saw the British team move to cancel his contract.

Ricciardo failed to land a seat for the 2023 campaign and instead elected to return to Red Bull as a reserve driver.

But he might struggle to impress with a team currently rooted to the foot of the constructors’ table, taking just two points all season.

However, Ricciardo added: “Over the past few years, I started falling into a trap where I believed the car does not suit me and you can be your own worst enemy. I know this car will have limitations but I will work with that.

“Getting this opportunity is a chance to make things better. That is why I am excited to get back behind the wheel and show my true self.

“I had enough time off to reset and also enjoy it again. Six months ago, I wasn’t at a place to jump at an opportunity like this but that has been the luxury of time.

“I have fallen in love with it again and I feel myself in an environment that provides me with a lot of nostalgia, so when the opportunity came along it was like, ‘let’s try it’.”

Tommy Fleetwood rode a wave of home support to the top of the leaderboard on day one of the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

Roared on by a partisan crowd, the 32-year-old from Southport carded six birdies and a solitary bogey in an opening 66 to share the clubhouse lead with South African amateur Christo Lamprecht on five under par.

Former champion Stewart Cink, who denied 59-year-old Tom Watson a fairytale victory at Turnberry in 2009, rolled back the years himself with a flawless 68 matched by US Open champion Wyndham Clark, with Jordan Spieth and club member Matthew Jordan round in 69.

Fleetwood revelled in the support of the large galleries as he bids to win his first major title in memory of his late mother Sue, who died on July 21 last year.

“It really was a great day,” Fleetwood said. “It’s always very nerve-wracking playing in front of your home crowd in such a big event, but I got off to a decent start.

“I was actually happy to have to get up and down on the first, holing a putt really settled me down and to get that going on the back nine was really, really cool. To get that support all day was amazing.

“If you’re not going to enjoy this atmosphere and these experiences then what’s the point? 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.”

Lamprecht had set the early target thanks to a round containing seven birdies and two bogeys, the 6ft 8in 22-year-old having qualified by winning the Amateur Championship at nearby Hillside a month ago.

Aided by playing alongside mentor Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 winner, Lamprecht carded the lowest round by an amateur in any major since England’s Tom Lewis shot 65 at Royal St George’s in 2011.

“I’d probably say the first tee shot was the only bit of nerves I had all day,” Lamprecht said.

“I just kind of walked off the first tee box after hitting my snap hook drive, and my caddie just told me, ‘listen, you’re playing The Open as an amateur, no need to stress’. We kind of had fun from there.

“It’s pretty surreal to be leading. [But] I think I earned my spot to be here. I think the way I played today I earned to be on the top of the leaderboard, as of now.

“It’s not a cocky thing to say. I just personally think I believe in myself, and I guess stepping on to the first tee box if you’re a professional or a competitor, you should be believing that you should be the best standing there.”

Jordan struck the opening tee shot at 6.35am, but the early start did not prevent him attracting plenty of support from fellow Royal Liverpool members, friends and family.

“Amazing. I’m kind of running out of words to describe it,” Jordan said of the reception he received. “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.”

The controversial new 17th hole claimed its first victim with Lucas Herbert, joint-leader at the time on three under, making a triple-bogey at the 126-yard par three.

Herbert missed the green to the left, chipped across the putting surface into a bunker, left his next in the sand and eventually finished with a six.