Christo Lamprecht was T-1 after Day 1 of The Open Championship, but after four rounds, he dropped more than 70 spots on the leaderboard. 

There was still a reason to celebrate, though. 

The 22-year-old Georgia Tech senior, making his first start in a world-ranked tournament, claimed The Open's silver medal as the amateur champion, becoming the first South African to notch that feat since the honor was first awarded in 1949. Lamprecht opened with a 66, but followed with rounds of 79-76-74. 

"It's been a really — I guess I told my caddie yesterday it's been a week with every bit of emotion felt, kind of coming off a high on Thursday and just not having it the last three days," said Lamprecht, who finished T-74 at 11 over and was the lone amateur to make the cut. 

"I felt like kind of in control of the golf ball not nearly as well as I wanted to or as I know I can be. It was a little bit disappointing, but obviously standing here being the last amateur standing and getting the silver medal this afternoon, yeah, it puts a smile back on my face."

The reigning British Amateur champion, however, isn't done teeing it up against the world's best. He's set to play next year's Masters and U.S. Open and has one year left at Georgia Tech. 

And as he moves forward with his golf career, the 6-foot-8 bomber will lean on his experience from an indelible week at Royal Liverpool. 

"I think if I don't take a lot of lessons away from this week, I haven't achieved my goal of being here and wanting to play in a major as an amateur," he said. "So if I don't take at least five lessons with a week, I'd be disappointed myself. 

"Yeah, I think there's a lot of things to take away from, but it's nice to know that my good golf is good enough to compete with anyone in the world, and that's something really nice to take away from this week and kind of motivates me to keep on playing better golf and keep on practicing."