JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (ANA) – South African Branden Grace created history as he shot the lowest score ever in Major championships with a stunning eight-under 62 in the third round of The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, in Southport, England, on Saturday.
The seven-time European Tour winner who has already come close to winning a Major in the last three years, produced a perfect round of golf on the links layout in good scoring conditions.
“I honestly didn’t know,” he said afterwards. “I was just so in the zone of playing, hole after hole. I knew I was obviously playing really well and making the turn in five under was pretty special and I thought if I could make a couple more on the back nine, then it’s going to be a great score. I had no idea that 62 was obviously the lowest ever.
“Zack [Rasego] my caddie was like, ‘congrats’ and I was, ‘cool, I’ve played an good round’ and he was, ‘that’s in the history books’ and I was, ‘what are you talking about?’.
“It makes it more special now and it’s great to be in the history books especially in a special place like this.
“It was a special round from the start, when you get it going like that you just want more birdies. I played really well, I played really solid from tee to green, I missed a couple of short ones but I made a couple of nice ones that made up for those. It was a great day all in all.
“It’s something I really enjoyed and something I’ll remember forever.”
The 29-year-old started with a birdie on the first hole before four more birdies to turn in 29 on the par 34 outward loop.
The 35th-ranked player in the world picked up three more birdies on 14, 16 and the par-five 17th.
An up-and-down for par at the final hole sealed Grace’s name in Major history for a back nine three-under 33, eclipsing the 63 recorded on 31 different occasions in golf’s big four events.
By the time Grace had finished his round, he had soared up 43 spots on the leaderboard to four-under overall for second place, two shots adrift of American leader Jordan Spieth.
Before Grace stole the headlines, countryman Shaun Norris set the tone for a good-scoring day with a fine five-under 65 to get to level par in a share of 17th.
Ernie Els had a quieter day, shooting level par 70 to remain on one-over heading into the final round. Brandon Stone, meanwhile, posted his best round of the week with a two-under 68 to rise to three-over. Charl Schwartzel signed for a 71 and a five-over total. – African News Agency (ANA)
(Pic: Michael Sherman)
