Fleetwood slips five back as Burns ties major scoring record

Tommy Fleetwood’s bid to turn a home Open into a defining victory slipped to five shots off the pace after two late bogeys at Royal Birkdale left Sam Burns alone on top with a second-round 62. Burns’ round tied the men’s major-championship record for the lowest score and widened the gap at the 154th Open Championship, the final men’s major of 2026.

Fleetwood had opened with a one-under-par 69 and spent much of the first round moving with the backing of a crowd that treated him like the local hero he has become. The pressure at Birkdale was never just about the leaderboard. It was about whether a player who grew up in Southport, sneaking onto the course as a kid, could keep a charge alive on the links he has long called his dream stage.

That emotional weight showed in the final stretch. Fleetwood had been in strong early contention after his 69, but the two late bogeys turned a promising position into a chase. On a course that rewards control and punishes hesitation, the mistakes did more than shave shots from his total. They shifted the entire mood around his round, from hometown momentum to the familiar risk of another painful near-miss in British golf.

Burns’ 62 underlined how quickly Royal Birkdale could switch from defense to attack. The course still demanded precision, but it also allowed a player to go low enough to post a record-tying number and seize command of the championship. That contrast has defined the week at Birkdale, where scoring has been low enough to produce hope and brutal enough to punish a single loose stretch.

Fleetwood has said the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale is the tournament he dreams the most of winning, and that ambition remained intact despite the setback. He entered the week among the players with the most at stake on the course where he learned the game, chasing a storybook finish on home soil even as Burns’ record round turned the race into a steeper climb.