Lucas Herbert has revealed his disappointment in not being selected for a captain’s pick at the recent Presidents Cup in the US, but says he’s moved on and is eager to use the Australian summer of golf to shoot up the world rankings in time to receive a Masters invitation.
Herbert won the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Championship late in 2021, his first win on the PGA Tour having transitioned there from a two-win career on the DP World Tour. The Bendigo native also finished the 2021/22 season ranked No.1 for strokes gained: putting.
Along with top-15 finishes at majors this year, the PGA Championship and Open at St Andrews, Herbert thought he had a compelling case for a captain’s pick on Trevor Immelman’s International team.
He missed out on one of six wildcards for the event at Quail Hollow in North Carolina, while six players also automatically qualified for the International side.
“Yeah, I was really pissed off I didn’t make that team,” Herbert said at the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland. “I thought I had a lot to offer and I felt like my form was decent leading up to it. I didn’t think I was out of form, so I was pretty disappointed when I got the call to say that I wasn’t in the team.”
The International team fought hard but ultimately lost to a star-studded US side.
“The boys did really well to make it the contest they did, because a week out, the way the press was, they were talking about it being a bit of a whitewash,” Herbert said. “It was good to see it be a contest. I’d like to think that I’ll play one of these eventually but yeah, it was pretty disappointing to miss out on that one.”
Herbert has slipped to world No.55 down from a career high of No.40. Hebert earned a Masters debut at Augusta this year courtesy of his PGA Tour win last year, and said gathering enough world ranking points from the Australian PGA and Open was the motivator to play well. On December 31, the top 50 on the world rankings are typically invited to the following year’s Masters. There is also another world rankings opportunity to earn an Augusta start at the end of March right before the Masters.
“Yeah, absolutely. I’m not really even sure what the points will be worth this week,” he said. “I’m not sure. I haven’t really looked at the field enough to know what it would be worth, but I know if I win I’ll probably move up in the world rankings, so that’s definitely the focus. Obviously top 50 at the end of the year will get Augusta, so I’d love to get inside that and go back there again.”
“I feel like my game’s trending in the right direction at the moment, so whether it’s at Christmas or one of the next cut-offs (March) for the world rankings, I will be playing at Augusta in April, I’d like to think that. Obviously I can’t control everything but I do feel like there’s not as much pressure as probably what it looks like.”
Â
