SOUTHPORT, England — For the third time in two days, Royal Birkdale Golf Club surrendered an 8-under 62 on Saturday, as New Zealand’s Ryan Fox became the eighth golfer to match the major championship scoring record of 62 in the third round of the Open Championship.
Fox, a 19-time winner around the world, had a chance for a 61 but left his 47½-foot birdie putt on the 18th a few feet short of the hole.
On Friday, Australia’s Lucas Herbert and American Sam Burns each posted 62s in similarly benign conditions with little to no wind on the dry and firm course.
Fox, who started the round at even par, joined Herbert as the co-leader at 8 under.
“I think it’s just the good weather conditions,” Fox said. “The course is brilliant. It’s obviously very firm and fast. In the mornings, the greens are a little bit softer. Obviously, we had pretty much no wind until the last couple of holes today.
“You feel like you can shoot a score in the morning and the greens are perfect, that if you do roll it well, you feel like you hole everything. That’s kind of the day I had today, and I’m sure the other guys will say the same from yesterday.”
Herbert will tee off in the third round with Jackson Suber at 10:50 a.m. ET on Saturday.
Fox, 39, had birdies on four of his first six holes, making a 9½-foot putt on No. 2 and an 8½-footer on No. 3.
After saving par with a 7-foot putt on No. 4, Fox missed the green with his approach on the par-4 fifth but chipped to seven inches for another birdie. Then he sank a 54½-footer for birdie on the sixth to move to 4-under.
Fox made another birdie on the par-4 eighth and made the turn at 5-under 29.
The two-time PGA Tour winner opened the back nine with a 7½-foot birdie on the 10th. His only bogey of the round came on the par-4 13th. He hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker and hit his second shot into the rough. He couldn’t get up and down, missing a 27-footer for par.
But Fox rebounded with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to get to 8 under.
“[Shooting 62] probably crept into my head on 10, but I wouldn’t say it was there,” Fox said. “Then when I birdied 14, I was like, ‘I’ve got a chance here.’ Obviously, 17 you feel like it’s a birdie hole. If you can sneak one more there, I knew I had a chance to get to that 62 number.
“To be honest, standing on the last tee, I’m going if I can get one on the fairway here, you can get a wedge or a 9-iron in and have a putt for 61. I was pretty happy to have that 40-footer out of the fairway trap. Didn’t hit a great first putt, but I was very happy the second one went in the middle.”
Five other golfers have recorded a 62 in a major before this Open Championship, most recently Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry in the first and third rounds, respectively, in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
“You’d take a 62 anywhere,” said Schauffele, who posted a 4-under 66 while playing with Fox. “If it’s in a major, it’s a cherry on top. But on a Saturday, it’s even better. He came out hot. He was hitting it close, making the putts he should make. The wind was down when we were playing and it was kind of overcast, so I thought it was a little bit softer than before, and he played amazing, and I was just trying to hop on whatever wave he was on to the best of my ability.”
South Africa’s Branden Grace was the first golfer to make a 62, in the third round of the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
