[Picture: Getty images
Lucas Herbert says he gets goosebumps at the thought of trying to win an Australian Open at Royal Melbourne and snare its newly-created invitation to the Masters at Augusta National, as he joined a slew of big names confirming their place at a blockbuster national championship on the Sandbelt in December.
Herbert, fresh off a hot first half of the 2025 LIV Golf season and a win at the International Series Japan on the Asian Tour in May, will return to his homeland this summer and join PGA Tour winners Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee, as well as major champion Cameron Smith and DP World Tour pro Kazuma Kobori, at the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne’s Composite course from December 4–7.
Recently, Augusta National announced it would extend automatic invitations to the 2026 Masters to the winners of a collection of national opens globally, including the 121-year-old Australian Open. The Australian Open already awarded three spots each year into the following Open Championship in the UK, and combined with the Masters pathway it added an enormous boost.
It was an exciting development for Herbert, who plays on LIV Golf where Official World Ranking Points aren’t available to thus climb into the world’s top 50 who are invited to Augusta, as well as Australasian tour pros who haven’t yet teed up at the Masters.
“It’s huge for us now; it’s a pretty clear pathway [to Augusta National],” Herbert, whose first Masters start came in 2022, said. “I think if you went back three months, mentally I’d probably written off many chances to play a Masters again just because it was tough to know how it was ever going to play out with exemptions … and how things would change.
“But now there’s obviously a much clearer pathway for us to be able to tear it up [at Augusta National] in
April. So it’s very, very exciting. It gives me chills to think about holding an Aussie Open trophy on Sunday of the tournament and knowing that I’ve got a spot in the Masters and the Open [Championship] off the back of it.”
Herbert will celebrate his 30th birthday on the second round of the 2025 Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, which had not held the Australian Open since 1991. Herbert, from Bendigo, played pennants golf at nearby Commonwealth GC and thus all his formative golf as a teenager on the firm, fast fairways of the Melbourne Sandbelt.
Herbert had a good chance to hoist the Australian Open’s Stonehaven Cup when he played in the final group last year at Kingston Heath, finishing T-5. This year will be Herbert’s eighth Australian Open start and he has only finished outside the top 25 once. He owns four top-10s.
“Having those opportunities to play majors next year is a nice reward for playing well, but I am
just so excited about playing the Australian Open in Melbourne again and especially at Royal
Melbourne for the first time,” Herbert said. “It is such a great golf course and tournament venue, and being right in the mix last year, I very much want to get the Stonehaven Cup in my hands and feel like I have a great chance this year.”
Smith, Lee, Fox, Marc Leishman and Kobori had all previously committed to the BMW Australian PGA Championship.
The 29-year-old Herbert will also contest his title defence at the NSW Open when the 2025 edition heads to The Vintage in the New South Wales Hunter Valley from November 13-16. “Getting a win on your home tour is something special, and to achieve that goal at the Ford NSW Open last year after some close calls earlier in my career was really special,” Hebert said. “It is such an historic event and to join that honour roll was amazing. I’d love to do something similar at the Australian Open this year as well.”
The NSW Open was Herbert’s first win on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and came after his breakthrough win on the PGA Tour (2021), three career DP World Tour victories and his win as part of Ripper GC at the 2024 LIV Golf Team Championship.
Herbert recently became married to wife Erika in the US and is excited for an Australian summer alongside his new bride. “Contending at the Australian Open, and defending the NSW Open, would be the perfect way to end a pretty great year on and off the course for me,” he said.
