1 day Ago By Marco Monteverde
Taking down his LIV teammate Cam Smith at last week’s NSW Open was just more confirmation that making the move to Ripper GC and playing with “Nick Daicos, Christian Petracca and Marcus Bontempelli on your team” made Lucas Herbert a better player. Likening his all-Australian teammates Smith, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones to some of the biggest superstars in the AFL, Herbert, a long-time Western BUlldogs supporter, was able to lean on the confidence he built during the successes of 2024 to get one over Smith at Murray Downs last Sunday. The Victorian will be putting those LIV allegiances aside again at Royal Queensland with a first Australian “major” in Herbert’s sights at the PGA Championship still buzzing from the come-from-behind win last week he said was part in due to taking Smith on.
“I feel like last week, we were both pushing each other pretty hard,” Bendigo product Herbert said ahead of Thursday first round at Royal Queensland. “We weren’t too worried about the rest of the field as much. We were just more keeping each accountable and checking out what each other had done in the off-season to see how hard we need to push each other.
“We’re competitive every week. We want to beat each other because it’s pretty healthy. It’s not like being competitive pushes him down, or makes him worse, or any of us really.
“Most weeks we’re competitive, and we don’t want to be the guy (whose) score doesn’t count on Friday or Saturday out there in the LIV events (for the team competition).” Herbert, a winner on the US PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, couldn’t be happier with his move to LIV adamant the team aspect made him a better player in 2024 after a turbulent 2023. “It feels like you’ve got, you know, Nick Daicos, Christian Petracca and Marcus Bontempelli on your team,” he said in a neat reference to the star AFL trio.
“And they genuinely want you to get better, because it does help the team win as well. “It’s not like they’re just kind of doing you a favour because they like you. “I’ve tried to ask as many questions and pry as much information without annoying the hell out of them.
“It’s pretty exciting to see where it potentially leads to in the next few years.” Like 2022 British Open champion Smith, Herbert will play four events on this season PGA Tour of Australasia schedule, which will make him eligible to win the tour’s order of merit. That will help Herbert’s bid to play in more majors next year, having only played in one – the US PGA – of the four in 2024.
“I will be doing everything I can to qualify for (the majors),” he said. “I know there’s an avenue through next week with the Australian Open, and with the order of merit in Australia, I believe there’ are some exemptions there as well, and then you’ve got the 36-hole qualifiers as well. “I’ll be doing everything I can to try to give myself a good chance to qualify for those because they are still pretty important in my life.
“The impact of playing in those major championships as well, winning them, playing well, having success ultimately has a big impact on Australian golf. “I look at the impact Cam (Smith) has had from winning The Open Championship in 2022. “It feels like golf has not been in a position this good in a long time.
“It seems like golf is thriving incredibly in Australia and us playing well in those major championships ultimately has that impact on Australia.”.
