[Photo: Getty images]
Lucas Herbert laughs recalling the moment he channelled his inner golfing hippie by beating balls on a beach in the Liverpool area the night before advancing through 11th-hour qualifying into the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
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Herbert, one of LIV Golf’s form players in 2025, missed out on automatic entry into the links major from his league’s newly-created pathway that awards one LIV golfer from the top five (not already exempt) a start at Portrush.
When European stalwart Sergio Garcia punched that ticket to Portrush, Bendigo product Herbert boarded a flight from LIV’s event in Dallas earlier this month and overnighted to Liverpool. Herbert was scheduled for the West Lancashire site offering five spots into The Open.
By the time Herbert set foot on the Wirrall peninsula and made his way to West Lancashire, the range had closed at 6pm. So had every other course and driving range.
The solution? Herbert came up with a beauty. It had shades of Tony Jacklin in 1973 but in reality it was a modern, Trackman-using tour pro ditching the gadgets and going unplugged.
“I walked 400 metres out to a sand bar on the beach, took my 8-iron and about 15 balls, and started hitting shots working on a swing feel I wanted to groove,” Herbert told Australian Golf Digest at Portrush.
Herbert provided this masthead with a photo of his setup that Monday night in England. There are two footprints where he built a stance and a line he literally drew in the sand for alignment.
“I don’t know if it worked, but I’m claiming it just for the story,” Herbert said. “I can’t even remember the swing thought, but at the end of the session, which was about an hour or so, I felt much more comfortable with my swing.”
Herbert’s beach range session
Comfortable? Herbert showed why he won three times on DP World Tour, once on the PGA Tour and on the Asian Tour at this year’s International Series Japan when he topped the field at 36-hole qualifier at eight-under.
“It felt quite satisfying especially because I’d never played the course before,” Herbert said “If you look at the video of me holing out on the last, I hit my foot because I was annoyed I bogeyed the last but I did what I needed to do, I guess.”
Herbert finished T-15 at the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews, won by his now captain on Ripper GC and LIV Golf, Cam Smith. He wants to contend in a major having enjoyed an outside-looking-in run during the final round of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills where he recorded his career-best result at the majors, a T-13.
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“Personally, I feel like my major record hasn’t, hasn’t done me justice,” Herbert said. “I think I’m a better player than what my results are reflected in the majors, and I want to play more majors to be able to improve those results.
“I would love to get you know my best finish in a major, for sure. When I came to LIV, it felt like if I stayed on the PGA Tour, I was going to play a lot more majors. But I didn’t think I was improving enough to be able to actually contend in them. Making the move to LIV with the opportunities it has given me with learning so much from my teammates like Cam, Leish and Jonesy and other LIV players, I think I’ve got the best chance to contend in one.”
