Lucas Herbert enjoyed a blistering start to the second morning at Royal Birkdale with an outward nine of 28 equalling an Open record and firing him to the top of the leaderboard.
The Australian matched Denis Durnian’s front-nine score set in 1983 – also recorded on the Southport links – in getting to six under at the turn.
Herbert, playing in his sixth Open having missed the cut in three, started at level par but three successive birdies from the first generated some momentum and he added three more – two after driving the short par-four fifth and ninth.
Another birdie at the 11th put the 30-year-old two ahead of overnight leader Jackson Suber, who briefly got to six under with an early birdie before dropping back into a share of second with fellow American Bud Cauley, who was three under through 11 holes.
England’s Matt Wallace, whose best Open finish is joint 40th, posted the clubhouse lead on four under after a round of 68.
“I played nice, started great. I knew conditions kind of similar to yesterday morning were going to play into our hands,” said the 36-year-old, who is bidding to become the first English winner since Sir Nick Faldo at Muirfield in 1992 – and first on English soil since Tony Jacklin in 1969 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
“The amount of people saying ‘Go on, Matt’ and egging me on because you’ve got an Englishman at the top of the lead. When was the last Englishman to win an Open in England?”
Masters champion Rory McIlroy was hoping to make a move in the morning but managed just one birdie – holing an eight-footer at the second having struggled with that length on Thursday – and one bogey to remain two over and a shot outside the early predicted cut line.
