Kelley Bydlon

Golf is such a mental game and we have another example of that with Sam Burns leading The Open Championship after 54 holes. Burns shot a 3-over 73 on Thursday, but has been locked in posting 62-65 over the last two days to pace the field at 10-under. He goes to sleep on Saturday night with a two-shot lead over Ryan Fox and Si Woo Kim with a chance to win his first major.

Scores were definitely out there on Friday with some remarkably tame conditions for a British Open. One of those scores belonged to Lucas Herbert, whose 8-under 62 was enough to propel him into the solo lead after opening with an even-par 70. His lead of two shots over Cameron Young and Jackson Suber was the day’s biggest development, but another 8-under garnered a lot of attention, as Sam Burns posted a 62 to move up more than 100 spots and position himself in the top five.

There is very little separation on the leaderboard for The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, as the course did a good job of providing challenges to the players since Mother Nature did not. Daniel Brown and Sungjae Im shared second place after 18 holes at 4-under until Jackson Suber went out and fired a 5-under among the late players to tee off.