Herbert narrowly misses record round as he seizes Open lead

SOUTHPORT, July 17 : Australia's Lucas Herbert fell agonisingly short of the lowest round in men's major history with a stunning eight-under-par 62 firing him to the top of the British Open leaderboard on Friday.

The 30-year-old, who began the day on level par, had a par putt of around five feet on Royal Birkdale's 18th green to make history, but it slid past for his only bogey of the day.

Despite an incredible round of golf he looked dejected as he shook hands with his playing partners, having equalled the men's major record low round achieved on several occasions, including by Branden Grace at the 2017 Open also at Royal Birkdale.

Minutes after Herbert signed for his 62, American Sam Burns matched him with a chip-in birdie from a bunker on the 18th.

"It was a lot of fun, those first 12 holes I don't think I've ever played golf that well before," Herbert said.

"It was cool to experience that and the nerves coming down the stretch, there was a great buzz out there and it felt like everyone wanted it to happen. I felt like I kind of let everyone down a bit missing that putt on the last."

Herbert led on eight under with Americans Jackson Suber and Cameron Young on six under and Burns a further stroke adrift.

With benign conditions on the sun-baked course, Herbert unleashed a breathtaking blitz of birdies.

He rolled in six as he reached the turn in 28 shots - equalling the nine-hole Open record of Denis Durnian at Birkdale in 1983. His assault continued on the back nine with birdies at the 11th, 12th and 16th and when he set up a birdie putt on the 17th with a stunning chip even a sub-60 round looked possible.

Herbert missed that but a par on the long par-four 18th would have done the job. After a wayward drive he left himself with