Record 62 for Grace on fire
BRANDEN Grace posted the lowest 18-hole score in 157 years and 422 major championships yesterday — and he didn’t know it.
After he knocked in his short par putt on the final hole at Royal Birkdale for a 62, his caddie, Zack Rasego, walked up to him and said, “You’re in the history books.”
South African Grace, 29, didn’t know what he meant.
He was so locked in on a flawless round at the British Open he wasn’t even aware of the scoring record.
Grace was only thinking about trying to get through the third round without a bogey.
“I had no idea that a 62 was obviously the lowest ever,” he said. “Now it makes it even more special than what it was.”
Grace pounced on a serene day that was ideal for scoring with a 29 on the front nine.
He sunk an 11m birdie on the par-3 14th, another from just inside 9m on 16, and hit a three iron onto the green at the par-5 17th for a birdie.
From about 18m behind the 18th green, he rolled a beautiful lag to 60cm and tapped in for the record.
Johnny Miller’s famous final-round 63 won him the 1973 US Open. Since then, 28 players have posted a 63 in the majors 30 times, most recently Justin Thomas in the US Open last month. None had ever gone lower. “Look at that number. That is sweet,” Miller, now a golf analyst, said as American television network NBC flashed a 62 on the screen.
Grace, who said par felt like more of 67 because of the light wind and soft turf, said: “There’s a lot of spots you want to keep out of on this golf course. And I did it today. So just fortunate the way things finished.”
With his name in the record books, still to be determined was whether Grace can add the claret jug.
Having made the cut by one shot, he finished the first three rounds for a combined fourunder, seven shots behind leader Jordan Spieth.
Matt Kuchar was second at -8, three ahead of Brooks Koepka and Austin Connelly.
Jason Day and Scott Hend were the best of the Australians at even-par, ahead of Marc Leishman (+1), Adam Scott and Andrew Dodt (+3) and Aaron Baddeley (+7).