Spoiler alert: the top-four belong to women.
Golf’s most untouchable numbers have been looking little less untouchable as of late. For decades, shooting 59 or 60 felt like something that belonged in the “you had to see it to believe it category. A round so rare that the entire golf world would stop and watch someone chase it. But over the last week, major championship golf has produced a stretch of scoring that feels almost impossible.
It started in France, where Haeran Ryu didn’t just have the round of her career—she changed the record books. During the third round of the Amundi Evian Championship, the South Korean star fired an 11-under 60, becoming the first player in history to record the lowest round ever in a men’s or women’s major championship.
And the wildest part? She didn’t even realize she was making history. “I never knew because, I didn’t know it was a par 71…I don’t [count] my score on the green, so that’s why I didn’t know until hole 18.” Ryu said afterward, explaining her look of surprise after the fact.
Ryu’s scorecard was almost too good to believe: nine birdies, an eagle and a near miss at something even more historic. Standing on the 18th hole, she had a chance to become just the second player in LPGA history to shoot 59, but her eagle attempt slid just past the hole. Instead, she settled for a 60—a score that now sits alone at the top of major championship scoring history.
RELATED: Haeran Ryu Goes Back-to-Back in Playoff Thriller at Evian
And now just days later, the men’s game delivered its own historic scoring show at 154th The Open Championship.
Lucas Herbert’s 62 at Royal Birkdale was one of those rounds where the possibility of something completely unprecedented started creeping into the conversation. The Australian opened his second round with a front-nine 28, matching one of the lowest nine-hole marks ever recorded in a major championship. But a closing bogey on the 18th after a missed short par putt left him with a piece of history rather than sole possession of it. As if a 62 could be disappointing, the murmur of aw’s as his putt failed to fall for a 61 explained just how much the crowd wanted to see history.
Herbert’s 8-under 62 tied the men’s major championship scoring record, a mark first set by Branden Grace at the 2017 Open Championship and later matched by players including Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Shane Lowry.
Then, about 30 minutes later, Sam Burns essentially said, “Hold my pint.”
The American matched Herbert’s 62 in dramatic fashion, holing out from a bunker on the 18th hole to become the second player of the day to reach the historic number.
The performance marked just the second time in men’s major championship history that two players have shot 62 in the same major round—following the 2023 U.S. Open, when Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele both reached the mark at Los Angeles Country Club.
RELATED: Those 62s Could Not Have Ended More Differently
But while Herbert and Burns grabbed the headlines at The Open, Ryu’s record-setting performance was a reminder that women’s golf has been driving this low-score revolution for years.
The Amundi Evian Championship, in particular, has become a place where major championship history happens. Before Ryu’s 60, the women’s major championship record stood at 61—a number reached multiple times at Evian by players including Hyo Joo Kim, Jeongeun Lee6, and Leona Maguire.
And when you look at the list of the lowest rounds in major championship history, women are the commanding members of the conversation.
Lowest Scores in a Major Championship
60, Haeran Ryu, 2026 Amundi Evian Championship, third round, Evian Resort Golf Club
61, Leona Maguire, 2021 Amundi Evian Championship, final round, Evian Resort Golf Club
61, Jeongeun Lee6, 2021 Amundi Evian Championship, second round, Evian Resort Golf Club
61, Hyo Joo Kim, 2014 Amundi Evian Championship, first round, Evian Resort Golf Club
62, Sam Burns, 2026 British Open, second round, Royal Birkdale
62, Lucas Herbert, 2026 British Open, second round, Royal Birkdale
62, Shane Lowry, 2024 PGA, third round, Valhalla
62, Xander Schauffele, 2024 PGA, first round, Valhalla
62, Xander Schauffele, 2023 U.S. Open, first round, LACC
62, Rickie Fowler, 2023 U.S. Open, first round, LACC
62, Lydia Ko, 2021 ANA Inspiration, final round, Mission Hills
62, Branden Grace, 2017 British Open, third round, Royal Birkdale
62, Mirim Lee, 2016 Women’s British Open, first round, Woburn (Marquess)
62, Lorena Ochoa, 2006, Kraft Nabisco, first round, Mission Hills
(Author’s note: it is absolutely wild to see which courses these records keep happening on.)