SOUTHPORT – The five-foot putt on the 18th green at Royal Birkdale slid past the right edge. Lucas Herbert gathered his card, signed for a 62, and left with a number that has never been beaten in a major championship. The first 61 in major golf history remained, as it has always been, a possibility nobody has yet converted.
Herbert’s 62 during the second round on Friday ties what stands as the floor of scoring in major championship golf. His front nine of 28 – six under through nine holes at Birkdale – equalled the Open Championship record Denis Durnian set on this same course in 1983. A single bogey on the back nine was not enough to push him below 62, and that is where he finished: eight under for the tournament, two shots clear of the field with two rounds remaining at the 154th edition of the oldest major in golf.
Jackson Suber, the 26-year-old American whose debut 65 on Thursday produced the first-round lead after just 27 career holes of links golf, shot 69 on Friday to reach six under and remain in second. The gap between Suber’s position and Herbert’s lead widened from one to two, though Suber’s continued presence near the top represents a remarkable continuation of what began as the week’s most implausible storyline. Sungjae Im and Dan Brown sit at five under. Collin Morikawa, who won the 2021 Open at Royal St. George’s on debut, is part of a group at four under that also includes Sam Burns and Cameron Young. Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, carded a 70 on Friday to reach three under par, five shots behind Herbert.
Herbert is 30, from Australia, and competes on the LIV Golf circuit rather than the PGA Tour. The Open Championship’s eligibility structure – built on world ranking points rather than Tour membership – has meant LIV players retained access to Birkdale without the exemption requests that govern their standing at certain other major championships. Herbert has used that access throughout his career without, until this week, producing a top-10 finish at a major. The round he produced on Friday at Royal Birkdale establishes a precedent that did not previously exist in his record.
Birkdale behaved on Friday closer to the accommodating end of what links golf permits. Wind settled into patterns the field could read rather than the sharp, variable gusts that can fracture a card before the turn. Conditions encouraged low scoring across the leaderboard: multiple players reached four under or better. Herbert’s 62 was still exceptional within those circumstances. The number represents something beyond favourable conditions producing an inflated outcome – it ties the record that has stood as golf’s major championship floor for decades.
The attention Suber’s Thursday round generated – a narrative built on almost no links experience producing the most improbable opening lead – shifted on Friday afternoon as Herbert moved past him. Suber’s first-round 65 at Birkdale was the week’s dominant early story. The second round’s story belonged to a different golfer entirely. According to Yahoo Sports’ live coverage, Herbert’s front nine was described as an “all-time heater” as he constructed one of the great rounds in Open Championship history.
The record Herbert shares stands as a collective achievement in the sense that multiple players hold 62 across different major championships. What changed on Friday was which tournament carries that number: The Open Championship now belongs to that list. The 43-year record for the front nine at The Open – Denis Durnian’s 28 at Birkdale in 1983 – acquired new company on the same course where it was set. Both records fell the same afternoon, to the same player.
The psychology of defending a second-round major lead involves demands different from the golf that earned it. Morikawa, who navigated precisely this situation at Royal St. George’s in 2021 and emerged as champion, sits four under and within reach. Scheffler carries both the world number one ranking and the defending title; five shots back with two rounds remaining is a gap that major tournament history suggests can be erased. Francesco Molinari, the 2018 Open champion, remains in the mix at three under. The leaderboard Herbert leads into the weekend contains players who have carried Claret Jugs out of Carnoustie, Portrush, and St. Andrews.
As the preview of this championship noted ahead of the week, Royal Birkdale’s back nine presents the tournament’s most demanding stretch. Herbert played it Friday with one bogey and a score that stood alone at the summit of the leaderboard when the day ended. Whether that management holds under the different pressure of Saturday and Sunday – when the field is tighter and the wind at Birkdale does what winds in Lancashire do – is what two rounds of major championship golf remain to resolve.
