Birkdale yields pair of contrasting 62s
Bryson penalty controversy; McIlroy bounces back; Suber shines blind; Open wish list
Lucas Herbert agonizes over missed 4-foot par putt for 61 (Kate McShane/R&A via Getty Images)
SOUTHPORT, England — In times like this, it is best to look at the positives.
Lucas Herbert, the Australian golfer, would have absolutely taken a 62 at Royal Birkdale when the second round of the Open began on Friday morning. Who wouldn’t?
No doubt he’d be thrilled to be leading a major championship, having never sniffed contention. Duh?
And he’d of course be stoked about tying a major championship scoring record.
But … about that final putt on the 18th green. The 4-footer for par. The one for 61 he missed.
The worst regrets are what could have been.
“I’m absolutely disappointed, and at the same time, so proud of today,” said Herbert, who flirted with the lowest score ever in a major championship until that bogey at the last hole. “Very, very proud to put my name on that list of guys that have shot 62 in a major championship.
“So it’s kind of holding two emotions there at the same time. It’s a tricky one, and I’m sure once the dust settles, I’ll be able to sort of decompress it a little bit. Right now I’ve sort of got both going on, and it’s a pretty good problem to have too, to be disappointed you shot 62.”
Rory McIlroy bounces back from his worst putting round
Jackson Suber’s first European vacation is proving to be a good work week
If the Open were to expand its links portfolio, our top-5 wish list
Nothing at all to be disappointed about in the big picture. Herbert, 30, who plays for the all-Australian Ripper GC team on LIV Golf, made nine birdies and a bogey to shoot 62 and match the all-time lowest round in major championship history, done five times previously by Branden Grace, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele (twice) and Shane Lowry.
Sam Burns holes out from bunker for a 62 of his own (Stuart Kerr/R&A via Getty Images)
Then, amazingly, Sam Burns joined the club less than 20 minutes later, holing a bunker shot for birdie on the 18th hole to cap a birdie-birdie-birdie finish and another 62.
“I had no idea until they told me up there,” Burns said of the record. “I didn’t realize that was the case. Yeah, I’m very pleased with it.”
For the record, the 62s in majors:
Branden Grace, 2017 Open, Royal Birkdale, third round.
Xander Schauffele, 2023 U.S. Open, LACC, first round.
Rickie Fowler, 2023 U.S. Open, LACC, first round.
Xander Schauffele, 2024 PGA Championship, Valhalla, first round.
Shane Lowry, 2024 PGA Championship, Valhalla, third round.
Lucas Herbert, 2026 Open, Royal Birkdale, second round.
Sam Burns, 2026 Open, Royal Birkdale, second round
So that’s three of seven 62s at Royal Birkdale, which is somewhat remarkable for a course that has otherwise been pretty stout in its 11 times hosting the Open.
And some low scores seemed inevitable this week, given the baked-out conditions that have not been accompanied by excessive winds. Still. Two 62s?
“I didn’t see any 62s out there,” Adam Scott said last week after playing practice rounds on the course.
“I don’t see a 62 out there right now,” Jordan Spieth said earlier this week. “If there’s going to be one, I could see it happening at an Open Championship over the other majors just because so much is dependent on the conditions and if the conditions are calm. Like you would think there would be a 60 at St. Andrews in calm conditions probably next year, just the way the game is going. People are just shooting lower and lower.
“So I think it’s a matter of time, technology and depth of golf.”
Spieth, who won here in 2017, had a lot correct — if not the part about 62. These iconic links courses are not match for today’s players and their souped up golf balls and technology, minus lousy weather or wind.
A dry, hot summer has baked Royal Birkdale to a golden brown, making it firm and fast the way organizers like it but also vulnerable to good scores if the conditions are benign.
There were 38 scores under par after the first round and the conditions were relatively the same Friday, leading to the record scores.
Lucas Herbert is disappointed and proud to make major record book (Oisin Keniry/R&A via Getty Images)
“That’s pretty cool,” said Herbert, who has one LIV Golf victory along with one on the PGA Tour and three on the DP World Tour. “I just saw the list before of guys who have shot 62, and it sounds like we just added another one to it out there with Sam as well.
“That’s a really cool list to be a part of. Even that whole back nine today, it was not lost on me the amount of history in major championships and the opportunity I had to obviously break the record, but then to tie it as well is still something I’m really proud of.”
Herbert, whose best finish at a major was a tie for 15th at the 2022 Open, put himself in position with a record-tying first nine of 28. Birdies at the 11th and 12th holes put him at 8-under for his round and in position to break the record, especially with two par-5s ahead. But he parred them both, made a birdie at the 16th, and then was unable to get up and down from in front of the 18th green.
His score gave him a 36-hole total of 8-under 132 after he opened the tournament with par-70. Bryson DeChambeau, with a 66 after a first-round 67, put himself in the final group with Herbert, a shot back at -7 — until he was later deemed to be in breach of Rule 8.1 for “inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing” on the fifth hole.” That led to a two-shot penalty and dropped him back to -5.
Jackson Suber, the first round leader, was two back after a 69 and tied with Cam Young. Burns’ 62 came after an opening-round 73.
It’s somewhat surprising Burns is here at all. He was expected to miss the event due his wife Caroline’s pregnancy. She had the baby on July 3.
“I haven’t really done a whole lot of golf leading up to this,” Burns said. “Plus I didn’t get here until midday on Monday. Just trying to get my feet under me for the first couple days. I don’t know if there’s lower expectations, but I think as a competitor, you still expect a lot out of yourself. But definitely tried to be a little more patient with myself for sure.”
Burns, 29, is not a links golf lover. In five previous appearances at the Open, he missed one cut and had no finish better than a tie for 31st.
“I would say I’m not a huge fan of links golf,” said Burns, who has five PGA Tour victories and finished runner-up last month at the U.S. Open won by Wyndham Clark. “I just haven’t played well on links. It’s not something I’m very familiar with. I get to do it maybe once a year.
“Like (Thursday) I hit … not a bad shot on 17. I hit a 3-iron in and was trying to hit it just left of the green and I get up there and it’s in the left side of lip and I have to hit it backwards. That kind of stuff is frustrating to me. You feel like you’ve hit a decent shot, and you get up there, and the next thing you know you’re hitting it backwards.
“That’s kind of been something I’ve tried to work on playing links golf is trying to be more accepting and still getting there. But yeah, I think the main thing is you just try to come out and execute to the best of your ability and learn to accept whatever the outcome is.”
Burns might have been looking to going home after his first-round 73. But he made a couple of birdies on the first nine and then added six on the back including the last three holes.
While Burns didn’t know he was doing anything special, Herbert was keenly aware. Both had different paths to the same score, one that puts them — for now — in the major championship record book.
Rory McIlroy’s 67 Friday gets him into the weekend (Kate McShane/R&A via Getty Images)
McIlroy fights back
After a poor putting performance during the opening round — his worst in a major via strokes gained going back to the 2022 PGA Championship — Rory McIlroy climbed back into the tournament Friday with a 67. He’s still seven shots back of leader Lucas Herbert but at least has a chance with a strong Saturday.
“I felt like I had momentum coming off the end of the front nine there with the two birdies on 8 and 9. I felt like I stalled a little on the back,” McIlroy said.
“Look, I think the main objective today was to be here for the weekend, which I am. I felt like I left a couple out there. Then you look at the board and you see a couple of 62s, and you feel like you could have done a bit better.
“Get off to a decent start tomorrow. There’s a couple of guys up there, this will be sort of their first experience of playing in the lead at a major championship on the weekend, so there’s obviously some that are very experienced at it like Cam (Young) and like Sam (Burns) as well.
“I think if I can get off to a decent start tomorrow, be 4- or 5-under for the tournament, I’ll be right in it.”
One aspect of McIlroy’s game that has been strong is his driving. He’s been leading the field in strokes gained off the tee. He also hit 14 of 18 greens Friday.
“I think I’ve driven the ball so well the last two days,” McIlroy said. “I think anytime I can get a driver in my hand, I’m going to try to. I just feel like with how I’m feeling with the driver, I think it’s a big advantage if I can get the ball down there and take out some of these fairway bunkers.
“I’ll continue to do that when I can, and then I’m still trying to figure out these greens a little bit. Yeah, I’ve struggled the last couple of days. It was a little better today but still didn’t feel 100 percent comfortable. Hopefully try to figure that out as the week goes on.”
Jackson Suber has been a quick study of links golf in his Open debut (Tom Shaw/R&A via Getty Images)
Who needs experience?
Learning links golf can be tricky and plotting your way around these ancient courses can be a challenge. Then there’s Jackson Suber, making his first ever trip to Europe, who played a links course for the first time on Monday when he got to Royal Birkdale.
Suber, a second-year pro from Tampa, Fla., who played college golf at Mississippi, was the first-round leader with a 65 and added a 69 during the second round to comfortably secure a place among the leaders.
“Well, I knew the ball was going to be the same size, so that’s always nice,” Suber said of his expectations. “It’s just pretty firm. It’s really the tee shots that I feel like is a big difference from what I’m used to. So just knowing that I’m going to hit a 4-iron 280, 290 (yards), and thinking about that runout and staying out of the pot bunkers. But that’s where I feel the biggest challenge is.
“Other than that, I think it’s pretty similar, just really firm — extremely firm conditions.”
Suber, 26, is clearly learning quickly. He played just 27 holes here before the first round.
After missing five cuts in his first eight starts this year, Suber has three top-six finishes since May, including a tie for sixth two weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
He qualified for tournament via the Open Qualifying Series, tying for fourth at the RBC Canadian Open.”
“I feel like I’ve been really coming into myself as a golfer and maturing and learning what makes … what works for me,” he said. “Just learning how to deal with my golf game on the road and playing a whole year and what I need to change when things are going a certain way and kind of what I need to be … how I need to be calibrating stuff every day.”
The trip has not been all business. Suber and his fiancée along with Pierceson Coody and his wife toured Liverpool earlier this week.
But he won’t be doing any driving on the left side of the road here.
“I’m trying to make it here four days,” he said.
Royal County Down would vault immediately to top of list as greatest Open venue (David Cannon/Getty Images)
Ranking an Open wish list
On Wednesday, The Daily Drive ranked the 14 courses that have ever played host to any of the 154 Open Championships to date. Today we rank the top five links that have never (and for most of them likely will never) see an Open waged on them. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy and wouldn’t produce a great championship.
1. Royal County Down, Newcastle, Northern Ireland
Consistently regarded among the handful of greatest golf courses in the world along with the likes of Pine Valley and Royal Melbourne, County Down would be a dream option if the R&A wasn’t so fixated on attracting massive throngs to optimize profits. The Newcastle links in the shadow of the Mourne Mountains has held its fair share of major events including three Senior British Opens (2000-02), two Amateur Championships (1970 and 1999), a Walker Cup (2007) and five Irish Opens (most recently in 2024 when Rasmus Højgaard clipped favorite son Rory McIlroy).
2. Portmarnock Golf Club, Portmarnock, Ireland
The R&A seems almost certain to break tradition and conduct its Open Championship outside of the United Kingdom for the first time so it can capitalize on the Portmarnock links’ proximity to Dublin. Built on a peninsula in the Irish Sea, the course is undoubtedly great and has the size to handle today’s best golfers. It has been the most common host of the Irish Open, staging 19 of them from 1927-2003. It held a Walker Cup in 1991 and twice played host to the Amateur Championship (1949 and 2019). The latter was not without controversy due to the club’s male-only membership, but Portmarnock finally invited women members in 2021 and was rewarded with a Women’s Amateur Championship in 2024 as the R&A continues to inch toward taking its big one there.
3. Royal Dornoch, Dornoch, Scotland
The Championship Course adjacent the Dornoch Firth is arguably as great as any links course in Scotland, which is saying quite a lot. The golf club was established in 1877 but much of its design greatness is attributed to Old Tom Morris, who visited the Highlands links twice. An airfield consumed part of the original course during World War II, after which George Duncan was commissioned to extend holes 6-11 on newly acquired land to create the world-renowned course. Dornoch native Donald Ross imported a lot of Dornoch’s design elements to places like Pinehurst. Because it’s so remote in the Highlands, Royal Dornoch hasn’t held many big championships. The British Amateur was there in 1985, the men’s and women’s Senior Amateurs in 2022 and four Scottish Amateurs have been waged there (most recently 2023). At 6,800 yards, some tees would need extending to test today’s best men. It would be so worth trying to make it happen.
4. Royal Porthcawl, Porthcawl, Wales
The sterling links on the Bristol Channel has welcomed plenty of prestigious tournaments including six British Amateurs, a Walker Cup (1995), three Senior Opens (two won by Bernhard Langer) and most recently the AIG Women’s British Open in 2025. It was also a regular European Tour stop on several occasions. Despite its pedigree and championship chops, the R&A said as recently as 2015 that it had no plans to take the Open to Porthcawl, much of it for the same infrastructure, space and accessibility issues that hinder a return to Turnberry.
5. Lahinch Golf Club, Lahinch, Ireland
If we’re dipping into the Republic of Ireland well again, a strong argument could be made for Ballybunion instead of Lahinch. But the links adjacent Ireland’s surfing paradise and around the corner from the Cliffs of Moher has a larger scale and more room to potentially accommodate a modern Open footprint. And its Championship course with the fingerprints of Old Tom Morris and Alister MacKenzie is as fun a test of golf as you’ll ever encounter. How cool would it be to see the greats tackle blind approaches to Klondike and Dell back-to-back with a claret jug at stake? Lahinch holds this year’s Walker Cup and is the regular venue for the South of Ireland Championship. It also held the 2019 Irish Open won by Jon Rahm.
that would be unfortunate
Any thoughts on Bryson possibly bailing on the event given how furious he is with the penalty?