Herbert ties record for lowest round in major history with 62 in Round 2 of The Open Championship

Lucas Herbert put his name in the record books at Royal Birkdale.

The 30-year-old Ripper GC star, a winner earlier this year at LIV Golf Virginia, fired a bogey-free 6-under 28 on the front nine in Round 2 of The Open Championship — tying the best nine-hole score ever recorded at a major championship. He made the turn with six birdies and never let up, closing out an 8-under 62 that ties for the lowest 18-hole score in major championship history.

That mark is now shared by six different players on seven occasions. Royal Birkdale has produced three of those seven: Southern Guards GC’s Branden Grace in 2017, and both Herbert and Sam Burns on Friday.

Herbert wasn't thinking about history when the round started.

"I don't play a schedule that is four majors a year consistently anyway, so the opportunities I do get to play majors, you get an opportunity to get off to a hot start on a golf course that's a par 70," Herbert said. "Not that I wanted the thoughts to come into my head, but it was honestly when it came in — so it was a bit of fun for the rest of the day just trying to acknowledge the fact that there was a chance but just to try to continue to go about what I was doing normally and naturally as best I could."

Told that Ben Hogan's pursuit of the U.S. Open scoring record in 1966 got so far into Arnold Palmer's head it derailed his round entirely, Herbert shrugged it off. "I don't know that it got tougher necessarily,” he said. “I mean, the first 12 holes, I might not play 12 better than I did."

The round's signature moment came at the treacherous par-3 16th, with a raucous Birkdale crowd fully aware of what was building even if nobody said it out loud.

"There was a lot of noise going on about — not that anyone said anything. There's nothing from the crowd, no one vocalized it, but everyone knows what's going on, the score you're at, the opportunity you've got," Herbert said. "To make that putt on 16 was pretty crucial."

The putt kept him firmly in position to make a run at outright history. On the par-5 18th, needing only a par to card the first 61 in major championship history, Herbert's putt slid just off line.

"I thought it was kind of left side of the hole,” he said. “I thought the wind was off the left a little as well, which might push it. It just kind of jagged a little left early on me and never came back. I didn't hit a bad putt, I just missed it."

The bogey dropped him to 62 — still a share of the record, still one of the best rounds ever played in a major.

Herbert hit 50% of his fairways and 77.8% of greens in regulation on the day. It's the continuation of a breakout year for the Australian, who claimed his first LIV Golf individual title at LIV Golf Virginia and has quietly built one of the most well-traveled resumes in the game, with wins on six different tours across six countries and continents — the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Australasian Tour, and now LIV Golf, with seven career victories overall.

For a player whose previous best Open round was a 67 at St Andrews in 2022 - coincidentally on the same day his Ripper GC teammate Cameron Smith lifted the Claret Jug - and whose best finish across 18 prior major starts is a T13 at the 2022 PGA Championship (with a best Open finish of T15, also in 2022), Friday was a career-altering day.

Herbert now finds himself squarely inside the conversation for a first major championship, and he made clear afterward that the moment hasn't been lost on him.

"I've thought about it," he said of one day winning the Open. "It's every kid's dream, though it hasn't always felt like a realistic sort of possibility. Dreams of winning The Open Championship are real, and I'm in a great position to do that through two rounds. There's still a lot of golf to go, and a lot of work to do."

Herbert will take his share of the record, and a legitimate shot at the Claret Jug, into the weekend.