Herbert Feels 'All the Emotions' After Record-Equalling 62 at The Open

Lucas Herbert walked off Royal Birkdale having just matched one of golf's most exclusive records, and by his own admission, he needed a moment to process exactly what had happened.

A Round To Remember

The 30-year-old Australian carded a sensational eight-under-par 62, matching the record-equalling low round for a men's major championship. Herbert described experiencing a whirlwind of emotions afterward, the kind of reaction that makes sense given how rarely a round this good happens on a golf course set up specifically to punish anything less than near-flawless play.

How Close He Came To History

What made the round even more remarkable was how close Herbert came to going even lower. He was within reach of nine-under par, which would have broken, rather than merely matched, the existing major championship scoring record outright. Falling just short of outright history after already producing a record-equalling round captures exactly the kind of mixed emotion, elation at the round itself, a flicker of what-if about the shots that kept him from something even bigger, that tends to define the best rounds in golf.

Why Royal Birkdale Made It Even More Impressive

Open Championship venues are typically set up to defend par fiercely, with thick rough, unpredictable coastal wind and firm, fast-running fairways and greens that punish anything but precise shot-making. Producing a record-tying 62 under those conditions, rather than on a more forgiving course setup, adds real weight to Herbert's round, distinguishing it from lower scores sometimes posted on softer, more scoring-friendly layouts elsewhere on tour.

What It Means Going Forward

A round like this tends to change how a player is talked about for the rest of a tournament and often well beyond it, becoming the reference point commentators and fans return to regardless of how the rest of the week unfolds. For Herbert, the challenge now is converting a single extraordinary round into sustained contention over the tournament's remaining days, since major championships are ultimately won over four rounds, not decided by any single, however spectacular, scoring outburst.

Herbert has flashed this kind of ceiling before without always sustaining it across a full tournament, which is exactly why his reaction afterward, that mix of raw emotion rather than calm satisfaction, felt genuine rather than rehearsed. Whether Royal Birkdale ends up remembering this week as the moment he finally broke through at major championship level, or simply as one brilliant round inside a career still searching for its defining title, will be decided over the rounds still to come. Australian golf fans, in particular, will be watching every shot of his final round closely.

Herbert's rise has been gradual rather than sudden, built through steady tour performances rather than a single breakout moment, which is part of why this round felt so significant to him personally. A major championship title would mark the definitive validation of that slower, more incremental career arc, transforming years of solid but not spectacular results into a genuinely historic achievement almost overnight, the exact kind of moment every touring professional quietly dreams about reaching one day.