Sam Burns tied the lowest round in men's major championship history on Friday at Royal Birkdale.

If you were watching USA Network at home in the States, there's a decent chance you had no idea it was happening until it was basically over.

The 29-year-old American carded a bogey-free, 8-under 62 in the second round of the 2026 Open Championship, matching the all-time major scoring record.

It should have been the story of the morning. Instead, it became the afterthought of the broadcast, buried behind wall-to-wall attention on Lucas Herbert, who'd posted his own 62.

What makes the story more shocking is that Burns is an American, and he came back from an opening round of 3-over 73.

Burns needed 21 putts all day and somehow shot 8-under while hitting just seven fairways and 12 greens in regulation. At the back nine, he carded a 40-foot birdie putt from off the green at 16, a 20-footer at 17, and a bunker shot at the last that he holed for birdie to cap off the round.

Broadcasted or not, Burns joins some elite company after his remarkable Friday round.

Branden Grace was the first to shoot 62 in a major, also at Birkdale, back in 2017. Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele did it within minutes of each other at the 2023 U.S. Open. Schauffele matched it again alongside Shane Lowry at the 2024 PGA Championship.

Now, Herbert and Burns join that rarest company after their respective rounds.

InsideSportsNetwork's Brian Kirschner posted a video on X after Burns' round and wrote: "Emergency press conference: Sam Burns and Lucas Herbert both shoot 62 and yet we only saw one of them happen."

And He Was Not Alone with the Same Complaint

"Some of the worst TV coverage in golf history. Sam Burns ties the major record shooting a 62 at Royal Birkdale. USA viewers basically didn’t see any of it. Somehow the production team didn’t think we should see one of the lowest rounds ever," wrote one fan.

USA Network tracked Herbert's round shot for shot with an on-screen "59 Watch" graphic once he got to 9 under through 17 holes.

Burns, playing nearby with a chance at the exact same piece of history, barely appeared on screen until the network cut to his closing bunker shot.

"@NBCSports the worst ever golf coverage in history," added another fan.

Just a day earlier, Canadian golf fans had their own broadcast disaster during the first round, for the second year running.

Coverage was supposed to switch over to Golf Channel through providers like Rogers and Bell. But several local affiliates never flipped the feed, leaving viewers stuck watching a golf instruction show instead of the actual tournament.

That's why one fan added, "Coverage has been awful from what I’ve seen, more commercial breaks than golf."

Another fan added sarcastically, "You mean the viewers wouldn’t want to see commercials every five minutes, “playing through” commercials between them, inane filler pieces, unimportant interviews and talking head opinions instead of great golf? Who wants to see golf? 😡"

NBC and USA Network's ad-heavy approach has drawn complaints all year.

And most recently during the Open Championship, Golf Digest's Joel Beall wrote from the media center at Royal Birkdale that Sky Sports showed continuous live golf coverage during one stretch of the first round. Meanwhile, NBC and USA Network cut to commercials three separate times in the exact same window.

So at the end, one fan concluded: "It’s absolutely horrendous."

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Written by

Md Saife Fida