It is rare for a broadcast to miss a defining moment at a major championship. As bizarre as it may sound, this apparently happened on Friday at the Open. The grandstands cheered for not one but two players, Sam Burns and Lucas Herbert, who also broke a record that had stood since 1983. Both tied for the lowest score in major championship history. The moment was a major milestone worthy of widespread coverage; NBC’s World Feed televised almost none of Burns’s round. The fallout has been swift.

Brian Kirschner posted a video on X to call out the oversight. “CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC refused to air Sam Burns’ 62 today. Makes you think.” golf writer Christopher Powers reposted the reaction, highlighting the issue. “I just want to reiterate what just happened on NBC and the world feed. Sam Burns and Lucas Herbert shot the same score in round two and tied the lowest round in major championship history. We saw Lucas Herbert take a s**t today. We saw Lucas Herbert drink from his water bottle today. And we saw like three shots from Sam Burns the entire day.”

Kirschner pointed out NBC failed to show Sam Burns’s historic round while being laser-focused on Herbert. “I would be saying this for anybody in the field here. This is a complete embarrassment. I don’t know whose fault it is, but whether it’s the world feed or NBC or USA, this is a complete embarrassment,” Kirschner wrote. The frustration isn’t baseless. Lucas Herbert made history at Royal Birkdale by matching the lowest-ever round in major championship history. Less than an hour later, he was joined by Sam Burns as they shot the lowest round ever in a major championship, shooting an eight-under-par 62 on a par-70 track.

🤔 golf trivia

This Should Be an Easy One, Right?

01/10

How Many Players Are Within Five Strokes of the Lead After R1?

59394015

Oops, bogey!

But don’t worry, there’s still the back 9 to prove your high golf IQ

PLAY GOLF TRIVIA

Dennis Durnian achieved the feat in 1983 by covering nine holes in 28 shots. Australian Lucas Herbert became the first one to match him at the same venue. Around half an hour later, American Sam Burns birdied the last three holes to match Lucas Herbert’s record-breaking score.

Many fans and golf journalists are unhappy, as they missed watching the action live. Part of the explanation being floated is Burns’ position on the leaderboard when the day began. He opened Friday three over for the championship, well outside the group broadcasters typically track closely, but caught fire late. The gap between where he started and finished was real, but it doesn’t explain why cameras never caught up once he was six under on his back nine, chasing the same record as Herbert.

Many critics have also floated a theory of imbalance, stating that Herbert’s playing on LIV Golf was part of the reason why he was heavily covered. Nothing has confirmed the explanation, but it has spread quickly, given how one-sided the coverage looked.

Golf fans are frustrated, as such a lapse is not a lone incident. In round one of the Open Championship, NBC was accused of heavy ad coverage throughout the round. Many complained they had to sit through three consecutive ads within a span of 15 minutes. The internet even compared the broadcast to European networks, which aired the round without any disturbance for over five and a half hours.

How Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns shot the same impossible number

While the cameras missed it, what actually happened at Royal Birkdale was one of the most remarkable hours in major championship history.

Lucas Herbert opened his front nine with three back-to-back birdies on the first three holes. Continuing the streak on the 5th, 7th, and 9th holes. His outward nine read 3-3-3-3-3-4-2-4-3, finishing with a 28. Furthermore, Herbert carried that form into the back nine and stood on the 18th tee at 8-under, needing only a par to become the first player in major history to shoot 61. However, his 5-foot putt slid past the hole by a margin. It cost him a bogey, and he finished the round at 62.

Herbert became the sixth golfer to card a 62 in a men’s major. Interestingly, that record was matched by Sam Burns within 20 minutes. He had opened the championship outside the projected cut, but on Friday, he turned that around completely, closing his round with three straight birdies. He made a 40-foot putt from off the green at the 16th, a 20-foot putt at the 17th, and a hole-out from a bunker at the 18th.

That was his first birdie of the day on that hole. A 62 pulled him to five under for the championship, just three shots back of Herbert. And it has come with its own separate record attached. Burns needed only 21 putts, tying the fewest putts recorded in an Open Championship round over the last 25 years. The mark was previously shared by Rocco Mediate in 2008 and Brooks Koepka in 2017. All three of those rounds, coincidentally, were played at Royal Birkdale.

As the Enfield Independent reported via the Press Association, this is only the second time in three years that two players in a group apart have matched a major scoring record together. Only Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele did the same at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.