Royal Birkdale has form for this sort of thing. Nine years after Branden Grace shot the first sub-63 round in major championship history on this same Southport links, two players matched it inside a single Friday afternoon, separated by twenty-two minutes and by nothing much else at all. Lucas Herbert carded an eight-under 62 that came within a whisper of becoming the first 61 in a men’s major. Sam Burns, who had not planned to be at this Open at all, shot the same score without even knowing what he was chasing until it was already his.
Herbert’s inch
Herbert’s round was, by his own description, close to flawless for seventeen holes. Three straight birdies to start, more at the 5th, 7th and 9th to make the turn in 28 and equal the lowest front nine ever recorded at the Open, a mark that had stood since Denis Durnian’s round on this same course forty-three years ago. Further gains at the 11th, 12th and 16th carried him to nine under with two holes to play, and by the time he stood over a five-foot par putt on the 18th, the Australian knew exactly what shooting it would mean.
It slid past the left edge. “I didn’t hit a bad putt. I can at least sleep easy tonight knowing I didn’t hit a bad putt,” Herbert said afterwards. “I just misread it. It’s pretty tough when you’ve got a putt for the major championship record to get everything to work and to get everything to sync perfectly still and straight.” He tapped in for 62, becoming the fifth man to shoot the number in a major, and described the strange business of being disappointed with the best round of his life. “I’m absolutely disappointed, and at the same time, so proud of today. It’s a pretty good problem to have, too, to be disappointed you shot 62.”
Millimetres from men's major history.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2026
An incredible card of 62 from clubhouse leader Lucas Herbert. pic.twitter.com/IlREzoAMfD
Burns had a better excuse than most for being underprepared
Sam Burns very nearly wasn’t in the field this week. His wife was due to give birth around the time of the Championship, and when their daughter arrived early, Burns made the decision to travel to Southport only the Friday before the tournament began. A bogey-bogey-bogey finish to his opening 73 on Thursday left him needing simply to get back to level par and keep the week alive, which makes what followed rather harder to explain.
Burns birdied the 2nd and 4th, then found six more coming home in 30, a run that included a 40-foot chip-in at the 16th and a 20-footer at the 17th before the finish nobody saw coming. On the 18th, from a greenside pot bunker, he splashed out and watched it drop for a closing birdie and a share of the record he had not realised was on offer. “It was a tricky bunker shot because I had to land it in the fringe there and use the slope down to the hole,” he said. “Definitely very lucky for it to go in.”
Out of the sand and into the record books.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2026
Sam Burns also cards an impressive 62 at Royal Birkdale. pic.twitter.com/CtpUsfQfzN
Where that leaves the leaderboard
Herbert’s 62 followed a level-par first round and vaults him to eight under and the outright lead. Bryson DeChambeau sits one back at seven under after a round of his own scoring in the mid-60s, with Jackson Suber, Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard tied at six under. Burns, after his eventful two days, is at five under alongside Si Woo Kim, with a large group including Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre and Francesco Molinari at four under.
Rory McIlroy’s week has gone rather differently. Seven shots off the pace after an opening 72 undone by short-putt trouble, McIlroy responded with a three-under 67 on Friday to reach one under for the Championship, enough to see the weekend on the right side of a cut line that hovered around level par. It is not the position the second favourite in the betting expected to occupy heading into Saturday, but it is, at Royal Birkdale this week, a rather more crowded position than usual. Three of the seven 62s ever recorded in a men’s major have now come on this course, and the only question left for the weekend is whether the wind stays as gentle as it was on Friday morning, because everyone in Southport now knows exactly what happens if it does.