SOUTHPORT, England — Friday of the 154th British Open may forever be known as the Tale of Two 62s.
It left you to ponder a few things:
- Whether one major championship record-tying 62 was better than the other.
- Whether the second 62, posted by Sam Burns, overshadowed the first one, posted by Lucas Herbert, and took some of Herbert’s glory away.
- And whether any of it will matter if neither player goes on to hoist the Claret Jug as the “Champion Golfer of the Year’’ come Sunday evening on the 18th green of Royal Birkdale.
Herbert, the 30-year-old Australian who plays on LIV Golf, was basking in the glow of his 62, doing post-round interviews and recounting it all, when the roars could be heard from 18, where Burns holed out from a greenside bunker for birdie to close out his 62.
Burns, whose wife gave birth to their daughter July 3, had given himself a “0 percent chance’’ to be in the field this week. So merely being in the field was a surprise after she’d talked him into making the trip to England.
