SOUTHPORT, England — Lucas Herbert knew almost right away.
“I’m too much of an optimist,” the 30-year-old Aussie said Friday afternoon at Royal Birkdale. “I thought it when I hit it to about five feet on the 3rd hole. I’m a golf nerd anyway, so I know all the numbers, all the records, everything like that.”
Sam Burns, on the other hand, might not have known the history he’d accomplished on Friday at the 154th Open Championship if it came up and smacked him in the face.
“I had no idea until they told me up there,” Burns said. “I didn’t realize that was the case.”
Seven golfers in history have now finished a major-championship round with a score of 62. Two of them came on Friday morning … and were separated by a mere 22 minutes.
First up was Herbert, a LIV pro, who made the turn back toward the clubhouse on the 16th green with history firmly within his grasp. He was nine under par, tracking for a major-record round of 61, and riding nine birdies to not a single bogey.
This was a big deal for Mr. Herbert, who reveres and knows golf’s history, records and traditions. As a kid, Herbert once spent a morning huddled around a television in Australia. The reason? He wanted to see if Chad Campbell would become the first player to achieve a major-record 62 at Augusta National.
Even though Campbell went on to shoot a then-major-record-tying 63, a little part of Herbert was born on that day. He began to believe in the possibility of professional golf — of playing in the majors and setting records. He knew on that morning and on all the other mornings that followed what it might take to set the single-round major championship scoring record. That this morning, Friday morning, when Herbert surrendered a bogey on his final hole to slide from 61 to 62, tying the single-round major championship scoring record with a lip-out on the last.
“I thought about it, if one kid gets woken up by their parents to watch me finish this round because that’s the record being broken, that would be so cool, and it would tickle me pink,” Herbert said. “I hope it happened. I hope some kid’s disappointed that I shot 62 and didn’t hole that putt on the last.”
Next up came Sam Burns, the surging American dart-thrower, who back-doored his way into the mere plausibility of major-championship history. As he turned for the 18th tee, Burns had recorded three straight birdies and needed a fourth on the last to close out his own unwitting bid at greatness.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Burns’s mind was on bigger problems as he pondered his tee shot on 18. As of just seven days ago, he was preparing to pull out of the final major of the season on account of his wife, Caroline, who was nine months pregnant with their second child.
“I thought there was zero-percent chance,” Burns said. “Brett, my agent, was like, I’m just going to sign you up just in case, but I was like, ‘You can, but I’m probably not going to be able to play.’”
As luck would have it, Caroline gave birth to a healthy girl, Belle, on July 3, freeing up Burns to make the journey across the pond in time for the opening practice 10 days later.
But that didn’t mean Burns entered the Open with his usual prep. Before Friday’s 62, he had hardly touched a golf club — understandable given the circumstances.
“[Caroline] is just amazing, superhero,” Burns said. “If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be here.”
In other words, Burns’s mind was barely on the golf as he teed off Friday morning … and not at all on a scoring record as he stepped into a greenside bunker on 18 to hit his third shot.
When his ball popped out of the bunker and paused momentarily on the top of the ridge before funneling down toward the hole, Burns’s mind never went to the lore of a major-championship 62. When it fell in the hole, he was pleased … but not nearly as delirious as the fans in attendance.
“I would say I’m not a huge fan of links golf,” Burns said sheepishly. “I just haven’t played well on links golf. It’s not something I’m very familiar with. I get to do it maybe once a year. I don’t know what to say.”
In the end, the scores were the same … but that was about it. It was impossible to miss the differences between the two golfers who made history on Friday, becoming the sixth and seventh players to hold a share of the single-round scoring record.
For one of those players, his lip-out on the last with the record on the line was a moment he’ll remember for all his life … and not only as a good memory.
“It’s pretty tough when you’ve got a putt for the major-championship record,” Herbert said. “I’m absolutely disappointed, and at the same time, so proud of today. It’s holding two emotions there at the same time.”
For the other? There’s a chance he’s already forgotten it.
“Yeah,” Burns said, “I didn’t know the 62 was a record anyway.”
