The day started with a player chasing the lowest score in the history of major championship golf. More than six hours after his putt for 61 went awry, a rules controversy featuring one of the most polarizing athletes in the sport threatened to eclipse every other story on Royal Birkdale’s marquee.With two rounds to go, a bevy of established stars and major champions are in striking position on the leaderboard.These are the top numbers and notes to know from a chaotic sun-swept day at the 154th Open Championship.1. When a 12-foot birdie putt fell into the cup at No. 18, it appeared Bryson DeChambeau had just capped a brilliant round of 66 and pushed himself into the final pairing on Saturday. But after a lengthy, animated exchange with R&A rules officials, it was determined that DeChambeau had unintentionally improved his lie in the tall grass at the fifth hole, necessitating a two-stroke penalty. Bryson is now 5-under for the week, three off the lead.The episode can be read about at greater length here. From a purely statistical standpoint, this is by far the best 36-hole position DeChambeau has ever been in at the game’s oldest championship. Before today, his highest standing on the leaderboard after two rounds at The Open was a tie for 39th place at Royal Liverpool three years ago.2. Through two rounds at the first three majors of the season, DeChambeau ranked 63rd (Masters), 82nd (PGA) and 143rd (U.S. Open) in the field in strokes gained approach. This week, he’s sixth, peppering flagsticks with 10 approaches inside 10 feet (tied for most in the field). That he’s hit just 12 fairways in two days has had little negative impact, with the one notable exception.DeChambeau missed the cut at each of the season’s first three majors. No player in the modern era of men’s professional golf has missed the cut in each of the season’s first three majors then won the final one of the year. There are two instances of a player missing the first two cuts of a major season, not playing in The Open Championship and then winning the PGA (when it was held in August): Dave Marr in 1965 and Hubert Green, who did it 20 years later.3. Lucas Herbert has a penchant for making birdies in bunches. He’s racked up more than a half-dozen rounds of 63 or better across the DP World and PGA Tours. Now with LIV Golf, he torched Club de Golf Chapultepec last May with a final-round 61. Only Jon Rahm (5.25) averages more birdies per round this season on that circuit in 2026 than Herbert does (4.76).But before Friday, he had never shot a score lower than 67 in a major championship. He obliterated that number in Round 2 at Royal Birkdale, tying the lowest round in men’s major championship history with 62. Herbert hit 14 greens in regulation in the round, with eight of those approach shots winding up inside 20 feet. He also made more than 120 feet of putts, gaining well over three strokes on the field on the greens.Fifteen other times in the last 40 years, a player has led The Open by one stroke after 36 holes. That player went on to win only twice: by reigning world number ones Tiger Woods (2006) and Scottie Scheffler (2025).4. Just two groups after Herbert left the 18th green, knowing history slipped through his fingers, another player finished a round of 62 under wildly different circumstances. Sam Burns holed out from the greenside bunker for his 62nd stroke of the day and sits at 5-under-par. It was his third straight birdie to finish the day, capping off a back nine score of 30 – the lowest ever shot on the back nine in an Open at Royal Birkdale.Burns finished runner-up to Wyndham Clark last month at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock. This weekend, he will try to join a pair of his U.S. Ryder Cup teammates who have won a major immediately after finishing second in one. In 2023, Brooks Koepka finished second at the Masters then won the PGA Championship at Oak Hill. The next year, DeChambeau finished runner-up at the PGA Championship before coming back to win the U.S. Open.Burns is three shots behind Herbert entering the weekend.Lucas Herbert has the 36-hole lead at Royal Birkdale. (Ben Stansall / AFP via Getty Images)5. After DeChambeau’s ruling concluded, Jackson Suber (6-under) moved into Saturday’s final pairing alongside Herbert. The outright leader after Round 1, Suber posted a more-than-respectable second day 69. In two days this week at Royal Birkdale, Suber has tripled his total career major rounds in the 60s (from one to three).Suber has played the par 5s in 5-under through two days, tied for best of any player in the field. The 26-year-old Ole Miss product will likely lean on his iron play to stay in contention through the weekend. With more than five strokes gained approach, he ranks fourth among all players.6. Reigning Players Champion Cameron Young signed for a round of 67 for the second day in a row. It’s the second time Young has started a major championship with consecutive rounds in the 60s. The other instance came at The Open four years ago at St. Andrews when he finished runner-up.Young was pinpoint with his irons in Round 2, hitting 15 of 18 greens in regulation in his round. His six approach shots inside 10 feet tied for most of any player in the field in Round 2.Young is the highest-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking (fourth) without a major championship. Since the beginning of the 2022 season, his seven top-10 finishes in majors are the most among players without a victory during that span.Why is this golf course’s bunker shaped like a donut?Gabby Herzig and Lauren Morales-Jones7. Scheffler, the defending Open champion, headlines a collection of names at 4-under-par, four back of the lead. Scheffler’s ball striking has been fantastic through two rounds, as he ranks in the top-five in the field in driving accuracy, strokes gained off the tee, greens in regulation and strokes gained approach. But Scottie’s putting, deservedly heralded over the past 18 months, has hindered him. Scheffler is ranked 140th of 156 players in strokes gained putting, and his longest make Friday was an 8-foot par save at the last.A year ago, Scheffler led the field at Royal Portrush in putting, picking up better than eight-and-a-half strokes on the field on the greens alone. A slight shift back to the mean with the shortest club in the bag could lead to a second Claret Jug, given the other 13 clubs continue to cooperate.8. Local favorite Tommy Fleetwood is also 4-under-par following a Friday 67. The Englishman struggled with his approach play on Day 1, hitting just nine greens in regulation. He hit 14 on Friday, better than all but eight players in the field.Two-time major winner Jon Rahm is also four off the lead, tracing a statistical path similar to Scheffler’s: the best in the field so far in strokes gained tee-to-green, but 152nd of 156 players in putting. Rahm could also be primed for a big charge this weekend.9. There were several surprising names among those who missed the cut. Perhaps most stunning was Matt Fitzpatrick, one of the pre-Open betting favorites, who entered the week leading the PGA Tour this season in both strokes gained approach and strokes gained around the green. Fitzpatrick shot consecutive rounds of 2-over and missed a cut for the first time worldwide this year.Reigning PGA Champion Aaron Rai and 2022 Open champ Cameron Smith both missed the cut by one stroke. Wyndham Clark missed it by two shots, the second time in three years that the reigning U.S. Open winner missed the cut at the season’s final major (DeChambeau in 2024). Justin Rose, who burst into golf’s collective consciousness at Birkdale in 1998 as a 17-year-old amateur, will head home early. So will Jordan Spieth, the man who won his Claret Jug in 2017, the last time the Championship was contested at this venue.10. The nine-stroke gap between the leader (8-under) and the cut line (1-over) is the smallest since it was also nine strokes at Royal Portrush in 2019.At The Open, 37 of the last 42 champions have been within four strokes of the lead after two rounds. Across all men’s majors, 24 of the last 25 winners have been within three shots at the halfway point.The largest 36-hole comeback to win The Open in the last 100 years belongs to Gary Player, who was eight shots off the lead in 1959 at Muirfield.