The Open 2016: Justin Thomas warmed up for Major charge by drinking from the Claret Jug

JUSTIN THOMAS warmed up for his Open charge by drinking from the Claret Jug.

The American soared to the top of the leaderboard early on before birdieing the last to sign for an opening four under par 67.

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And he was snapped earlier in the week chugging from the trophy given to defending Open champion Zach Johnson.

Many players refuse to even touch the trophy synonymous with golf's oldest tournament for fear of jinxing themselves.

But Thomas was reassured by Johnson and Phil Mickelson having done so before they went onto win.

He said: "The drink did taste a lot better out of there.

"I was very tentative to because I'm very superstitious, but I heard Zach had done it beforehand and Phil and many guys had before so I thought it was fair game.

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"It would be great if I were the one to hand it out over the weekend but it's only Thursday and I have a lot of golf left."

And Thomas, who is staying in a house with Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker and Jason Dufner revealed he's been relaxing away from the course by playing baseball in Scotland.

He added: "Rickie travels with two baseball gloves and a ball so him and Jimmy started throwing.

"Then we found something we could use as a bat so we started playing backyard baseball.

"We were out there for two and a half, three hours. It was great. We were like little kids again."