Grace sets major championship record with 62 at British Open

He says his caddie, Zach Rasego, came up to him after he made par on 18 and said, “Congrats, you broke the record”.

His seven-under-par round allowed him to end the championship at six under par, behind only the victor Jordan Spieth, on 12-under, and runner-up Matt Kuchar.

On the 18th, Grace calmly two-putted for par to secure the first 62 in major history.

“Obviously now it makes the day even sweeter”. After sailing his drive into a dune, he took an unplayable, walked onto the adjacent practice area, took relief from the parked equipment trailers and somehow – over the course of a half-hour – made bogey.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers are pretty cool.

The tall, perma-grinned Kuchar – greeted everywhere with the trademark “Kuuuuch” from the crowd – closed the gap to one with a birdie on the short 14th and added another on the par-five 15th as rain began to fall. I had no idea that 62 was the lowest ever. “Then I started to hole everything so I was quite happy out there”.

Grace hit 16 of 18 greens, getting up and down from over the 18th to set the record in the 442nd major championship to be played. Having started the day four over par, he finished it four under, but he has a mountain to climb if he is to lift the Claret Jug later today. “If you want the ball to go straight, have the back of your glove pointing at the target at impact”, says Ruggiero, who works with Smylie Kaufman and Lucas Glover, among other tour players. Several players had got a 63.

Matt Kuchar moved into a tie for the lead in the British Open – but only for the briefest of moments. Scoring will not be so easy, but every player back of Kuchar knows they have to attack if they are to prevent Spieth from completing the third leg of golf’s Grand Slam. Southgate, who overcame cancer two years ago, has made it into the field via Final Qualifying the last two years in a row, but won’t need to worry about doing so next year. Austin Connelly, a 20-year-old Canadian, is third on six under par after a 66. But in it went, and another birdie on the 17th got him to 8-under-par for his round and in a tie for 2nd at four-under for the tournament.

On moving day at the Open Championship, a sunny day that NBC’s Dan Hicks likened to a “Saturday at Palm Springs”, Royal Birkdale was available for the taking. McIlroy was at 4 under, three shots out of the lead.

“You never know what´s going to happen tomorrow”.

“I honestly didn’t. You know, I was just so in the zone of playing, hole after hole. And I could see he wasn’t backing off”, said his playing partner Els, who shot 74 to end on +5. “They’ve done a couple things today that I’ve actually not seen at the Opens”.