twenty four 63s but no sign of the magical 62

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Given that no one in over 100 years has shot a 62, you would be forgiven for thinking it is unlikely to happen this week.

And yet, there have been twenty-four 63s (by 22 different players, because Vijay Singh and Greg Norman did it twice) and most of those have been in the last quarter of a century.

In other words, it is going to happen sooner or later; and the chances are it will be sooner. William Hill gave odds at the beginning of the week of 62/1 (which made it look as though they didn’t really know what odds to give) against anyone in the field shooting that number or lower.

Remember, Royal Lytham is one of the few Open Championship courses with a par of 70, meaning a player only has to get to 8-under-par to reach the magic number.

In the first round, Adam Scott stood on the 17th tee, needing to birdie one of the last two holes to record the first ever 62 in major championship history. After a par at the 17th, he took an iron out for safety, and then pulled it into the long grass!

He could only move his second forward just over 100 yards, and failed to find the hole with his third, with a wedge. A day later, Brandt Snedeker had a shot of some 160 yards at the 18th, which he needed to sink for a 62; and needless to say he failed; eventually finishing – like Scott – with a 64.

In Saturday’s third round, no one threatened the score, despite the fact that – for the third day in a row – the wind failed to blow and the conditions were very benign. (It makes you wonder what the scores would have been, if the wind really had blown!)

Who knows if someone will reach the magic score tomorrow, but given the wind is due to get up, that seems increasingly unlikely.

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