Open Championship agony: Lucas Herbert comes an inch from history, ties mark for lowest round in a major

History arrives at strange times, like a gentle Friday at a golf club in northwest England, and through unexpected individuals, like a 30-year-old Australian ranked 97th in the world. Lucas Herbert, who has exactly zero career top-10 finishes in majors, came within an inch of history, just barely missing an 18th-hole putt that would have set the lowest round in major championship history. He nonetheless finished with a record-tying 62 to lead the field at -8, but it could have been so much more. 

"I'm a golf geek like everyone else," he said. "I knew all the records, knew all the numbers … so I was very aware of that."

As for the putt at 18 …

"I thought I hit a really good putt, it felt like it just jagged left on me early," he said. "… The nerves were going, but I thought I handled them well. It just wasn't meant to be."

Some 30 minutes later, Herbert was joined by Sam Burns, who chipped in at 18 for his own 62.

Herbert began the day at even par, and promptly launched into orbit. He birdied his first three holes, then made three more before the turn. That gave him an opening nine score of 28, tying the lowest nine-hole score in majors history. (The others: Denis Dumian at Birkdale in 1983, Brad Faxon at the PGA Championship at Riviera in 1995.) 

He added two more birdies on the 11th and 12th, and that put him on pace to reach 62, the lowest 18-hole score in major championship history. First set, coincidentally enough, at Royal Birkdale in 2017 by Branden Grace, the mark has been reached four times since — twice in 2023 at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club (Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele) and twice in 2024 at the PGA Championship at Valhalla (Shane Lowry, Schauffele again). 

With two par-5s remaining ahead of him, Herbert appeared to have a clear path to history. But he ran into trouble on the par-5 14th, sending both his tee and approach shots into Royal Birkdale's treacherous pot bunkers. But he managed to save par and stay on pace. 

Two holes later, he leaped ahead of the pace, rolling in a seven-foot birdie on the par-4 16th to get to -9 on the day.

He then hammered a 373-yard drive right to the heart of the fairway on the par-5 17th to set up yet another red-figure opportunity. His approach ended up on the far side of a ridge from the hole, and had to fire at the pin from on the other side of a high dune. The resulting shot was brilliant, ending up just 10 feet from the pin. He tugged his birdie putt just slightly to the left, but still parred the hole to remain on pace for the record. 

So he walked to the 18th tee needing only a par to set a new record for the lowest 18-hole round in a major. Using driver off the tee, and facing a 10-mph left-to-right wind, he fired his tee shot far right, near the course's boundary line and in amongst the gallery. After a drop, he left his approach just short of the green, 17 yards from the pin. He walked up the 18th to massive cheers from the golf-knowledgeable gallery at Royal Birkdale.

Herbert opted for putter, and rolled his first uphill to within five feet of the cup. That left him with five feet to history, and after a long deliberation, began his swing. The ball seemed off from impact, and rolled just wide of the cup. He tapped in for the sixth 62 in men's major championship history, but it could have been so much more. 

This is still heady territory for Herbert, who plays on the LIV Golf tour as part of Rippers GC. He won LIV Golf's Virginia event earlier this year, and he has a single win on the PGA Tour and three on the European Tour. But he's never placed higher than T13 in a major. Thanks to his LIV affiliation, he's only played in four majors, including this one, since the start of the 2024 season, and only made one cut, finishing T43 at the PGA Championship in 2024. 

Although he posted a two-stroke clubhouse lead, Herbert still has plenty of work to do if he wants to actually win this tournament. As strong as the previous record-setting rounds were, neither presaged a victory; Dumian finished T8 and Faxon solo 5th in their tournaments. But for now, at the Open Championship's halfway point, Lucas Herbert has gone where no other player in the history of golf has gone before. That's not a Claret Jug, but it's not nothing, either.