The lowest 18-hole scores in major championship history

It took a little more than 24 hours at the 2026 Open Championship for the gaggle of tour pros who share the all-time men’s 18-hole major scoring record of 62 to jump from four to seven. Lucas Herbert, Sam Burns and Ryan Fox (who would go on to win the Open on Sunday) joined the club at Royal Birkdale, eight years removed from Branden Grace becoming the first to do so at the same English links.

Herbert and Burns accomplished their feet just two groups apart during Friday’s second round, and the contrast in how they finished on the 18th hole couldn’t have been larger. Herbert walked off a touch disappointed after making bogey, the chance to hold the record all by himself at 61 denied when he missed a five-footer for par on the home hole. 

Burns, meanwhile, holed a bunker shot on the 18th for birdie (his third straight) to get to his 62.

Come Saturday’s third round, Fox also had a chance to post a 61 if he made a birdie on the last hole. But a 45-footer wouldn’t fall. In his case, settling for 62 was just fine as it set things up for his Sunday charge that earned him the claret jug.

The Herbert/Burns sequence was reminiscent of the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, when Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele shot matching 62s within a half hour of each other in the first round.

Here’s the group that the trio now share company with:

62—Branden Grace, 2017 Open Championship, third round (Royal Birkdale)

62—Rickie Fowler, 2023 U.S. Open, first round (LACC)

62—Xander Schauffele, 2023 U.S. Open, first round (LACC)

62—Xander Schauffele, 2024 PGA, first round (Valhalla)

62—Shane Lowry, 2023 PGA, third round (Valhalla)