Branden Grace becomes first man in history to shoot 62 in a Major after tearing apart Royal Birkdale
South African went out in five under and came back in three under for record-breaking eight under round
BRANDEN GRACE became the first man ever to shoot 62 in a Major - and then said he had no idea he'd made history!
The South African posted a record-breaking round of eight under at Royal Birkdale in the third round of the Open.
There had been an incredible 31 rounds of 63 in Majors before today - with Justin Thomas bagging one at last month's US Open.
But Grace - who came home in three under after blitzing the front nine in five under - blew them all away.
And incredibly, he had no idea what he had achieved.
He said: "I think it helps I didn't know. It was a special round from the start and I just wanted to make more birdies.
"I wasn't aware of it! My caddie said 'congrats, it's in the history books' and I had no idea!
"It makes it even more special now to be in the history books.
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"You can see from my reaction I didn't know what was going on.
"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."
Grace stood on the 17th tee needing a birdie from his final two holes.
And he rifled an iron into that heart of that par five before showing nerves of steel to two-putt from around 50ft on the 18th.
Grace birdied the first and picked up further shots at the fourth and fifth before birdieing eight and nine.
He then drained more putts for birdies on 14 and 16 before the two-putt on 17 meant he needed just a par from the last - where up to that point there had been just one bogey all day.
Barely 90 minutes after Grace signed his card, Dustin Johnson looked shooting 62.
But, needing two birdies from his final three holes, he thinned a greenside bunker shot on the 17th and could only par the last.
