Royal Birkdale has a history of producing absurd rounds, and on Friday it did it twice before lunch. Lucas Herbert turned the front nine at -5 to reach the turn in 28, tying the lowest nine holes ever posted in a men's major, and he wasn't done.
Herbert's birdie on 9 dropped him to -6 and put him alone atop the leaderboard.
From there it turned into one of those rounds where you just stop checking the leaderboard and watch. Seven birdies through 11 holes, then a run that took him to -8 with three to play, the kind of stretch where the crowd starts following him around the dunes instead of the group ahead.
Herbert pumped his fist after reaching -9 with two holes left to play.
Herbert got to -9 and had a putt on 18 that would have made him the sole owner of the lowest round in men's major championship history. He missed the 5-footer, settling for a bogey and a second-round 62 — still a record-tying number, but a gut punch given how close he came to sole possession of the mark.
Herbert's 62 tied the major record, but the missed par putt on 18 for a 61 stung.
The 62 has become a surprisingly crowded club. Branden Grace was the first to do it, fittingly at this same Royal Birkdale, back in 2017. Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele both shot 62 at the 2023 US Open, Schauffele did it again at the 2024 PGA Championship, and Shane Lowry matched it days later at Valhalla. Herbert's 62 tied that group — but two groups behind him, Sam Burns was busy joining it too.
Burns holed out from a bunker on 18 to shoot his own 62 and match Herbert's number from earlier in the day.
Burns closed with birdie-birdie-birdie, capped by a hole-out from a greenside bunker on 18, to card his own 62 and become the second player to tie the record in the same round. Two guys matching the all-time major scoring mark on the same golf course on the same afternoon is the kind of thing that doesn't happen — until, apparently, Royal Birkdale decides it will.
Herbert's brutal near-miss and Burns's bunker heroics turned what was already a wide-open Open into a two-man highlight reel, and it happened fast enough that most people were still refreshing the leaderboard for Herbert when Burns snuck in behind him.
The recap of just how much history got made while everyone's eyes were on Herbert.
