Tag: Lucas Herbert

Watch: Lucas Herbert’s caddie gets dinked in head by bottle at LIV Golf Adelaide’s Watering Hole

Keep your head on a swivel.

Keep your head on a swivel.

That’s what LIV Golf is likely to be telling its players and caddies heading into Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club in Australia, where Brendan Steele sits at 14 under after the second round and one in front of Danny Lee heading to Sunday. Aussie favorite Cameron Smith sits only three shots back.

The fans at the Adelaide event have been the best for LIV Golf now for the second straight year, with people coming in droves Down Under to watch professional golf. With its own rendition of a party hole, the “Watering Hole,” there have also been plenty of scenes getting a bit too rowdy for a golf tournament, but who says we can’t have some fun?

However, as is the case often times when alcohol is involved, some fans took it way too far Saturday. Aussie Lucas Herbert was lining up a 6-foot par putt and knocked it in on the Watering Hole, and fans went berserk. So much so that when his caddie was putting the flag stick in the hole, he got smoked in the head by a bottle and went down.

All for fans celebrating and having fun at golf tournaments. That’s fun to watch and be a part of. But throwing things intentionally near players and caddies? Yeah, no thank you.

Here’s to hoping Herbert’s caddie survived the headshot. Herbert is 6 under after two rounds of play.

Carlos Ortiz and Mito Pereira are at 12 under individually, two back. In the team competition, Torque GC leads at 35 under by one over HyFlyers GC and IronHeads GC.

LIV Golf players flock to Asian Tour event in search of world ranking points

The 2024 Masters is less than two months away, and the race for the OWGR top 50 is on.

We’re less than two months away from the first men’s major championship of the year, and the race to qualify via the Official World Golf Ranking is heating up.

One way to play into the 2024 Masters field is to secure a spot inside the top 50 of the OWGR the week before the event at Augusta National, April 11-14. PGA Tour players have seven more events to earn points, while the DP World Tour has five events on its schedule before the Masters. LIV Golf players, however, are running out of time.

This week, 21 of the 54 current players in the league led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have entered the Asian Tour’s first International Series event of the year in Oman. The International Series consists of 10 events – funded by LIV Golf – that offer significantly less prize money than LIV events. So why play? Under the Asian Tour wing, International Series events dish out OWGR points.

LIV Golf hasn’t been granted OWGR points despite numerous attempts (remember the MENA Tour alliance?), which has caused its players to plummet in the rankings over the last two years. Patrick Reed is 100th, Bryson DeChambeau is 169th and Dustin Johnson is 238th, to name a few.

Of the 21 LIV players in the Oman field, just three are currently inside the top 100: Lucas Herbert (80), Joaquin Niemann (81) and Dean Burmester (95).

“I think I have a different mindset for this year,” said Niemann after he won LIV’s season opener in Mexico earlier this month. “It kind of hurt me a little bit not being in the majors and I think also helped me to get motivation to kind of earn my spot back into the majors.”

Both Niemann and Burmester played their way into the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon via their Open Qualifying Series wins at the end of 2023, but a trip down Magnolia Lane may be out of reach. LIV has three events in the next seven weeks leading up to the Masters – Jeddah (March 1-3), Hong Kong (March 8-10) and Miami (April 5-7) – which makes any sort of top-50 push for the Masters not necessarily impossible, but certainly improbable.

The U.S. Open and Open Championship feature top 60 and top 50 exemptions, respectively, and while the PGA Championship doesn’t explicitly grant exemptions based on the OWGR, special exemptions are often given to players inside the top 100 to those who aren’t qualified through a set category.

Long story short, this week’s event in Oman is just the start of what will be a busy year for LIV players not already qualified for the majors.

LIV players in International Series Oman field

Player Current OWGR Ranking
Lucas Herbert 80
Joaquin Niemann 81
Dean Burmester 95
Louis Oosthuizen 137
David Puig 141
Mito Pereira 154
Abraham Ancer 165
Anirban Lahiri 309
Charl Schwartzel 329
Matt Jones 395
Eugenio Chacarra 411
Scott Vincent 413
Kieran Vincent 422
Sebastian Munoz 428
Jinichiro Kozuma 522
Peter Uihlein 629
Danny Lee 643
Branden Grace 715
Matthew Wolff 1,113
Carlos Ortiz 1,286
Hudson Swafford 1,786

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What rust? Lucas Herbert shoots 63, a scrappy JT and Max lurking among 5 things from the first round of 2023 Fortinet Championship

Here are the key storylines about the first round of the Fortinet Championship.

NAPA, Calif. — After taking a much-needed seven-week break from the PGA Tour to hit the reset button, Lucas Herbert showed little rust on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Australian reeled off six straight birdies on the back nine at Silverado’s North Course to post 9-under 63, matching his career low and grabbing a two-stroke lead over S.H. Kim after the first round of the Fortinet Championship.

“Found a little groove there,” said Herbert, who just started practicing again less than two weeks ago. “It felt like anything I did poorly seemed to work out nicely for me and the good shots got rewarded as well.”

Herbert, who won twice in 2021, including his third start as a member on the PGA Tour, was mired in a slump last season that left him ranked 152nd in the FedEx Cup standings. With only the top 70 advancing to the Playoffs in August, Herbert shut his season down after missing the cut at the British Open in July.

“Golf’s been getting me down pretty hard this year. It was just a tough stretch there where I had a lot going on both in my life and on the golf course as well,” he explained. “I didn’t really want to think about golf or talk about golf for about a good month there, just needed to get away from the game and refresh everything. Yeah, it sucked, I’d love to be here or up on the FedEx Cup standings as we speak, but hopefully taking that good break, refreshing, have a little reset gives me a better chance to play well in the fall season and get some better results and get into the bigger events again next year.”

THINGS TO DO: Five things to know about a Wine Country getaway with a side of golf

Herbert said he spent time in Maine, including meeting members of his girlfriend’s family for the first time, and enjoyed playing guitar and working on the home he bought in Orlando in March.

“I went and spent some time around people where I wasn’t the main focus of everyone’s life for the day. I was able to go and be a part of other people’s lives, which is something we don’t get to do as golfers,” he said. “I feel like coming here this week I was ready to play again. I think for a while there it felt like if my flight got canceled to a tournament and there was no other way to get there, I would have been happy to go home, like, oh, good a week off. I feel like if that happened this week, I would have been upset, I was ready to go. That sort of tells me I was back in a good frame of mind to be able to come out here and just deal with adversity when it comes on the golf course.”

Here are four more things to know about the first round of the Fortinet Championship.

Lucas Herbert makes two quintuple bogeys, including at No. 17, at 2023 Players Championship

The PGA Tour media guide doesn’t list a lucky number for Lucas Herbert. But it’s safe to say it isn’t 5.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The PGA Tour media guide doesn’t list a lucky number for Lucas Herbert.

But it’s safe to say it isn’t 5.

Five trips to the water turned into a pair of quintuple bogeys Friday, turning the Australian golfer’s debut at the Players Championship into a five-alarm fire. He finished with a second-round 85 to follow his opening 82, a total score of 23 over par.

According to Players Championship media guide records, Herbert’s 167 is the highest two-round score for a player missing the cut since Mike Brisky shot 170 in 2000. It wasn’t immediately clear how many other players, if any, had two quintuple bogeys in one round at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Though the conditions were largely favorable for the first two rounds, the course still inflicted a few disasters. None felt the sting worse than Herbert, who already brought up the rear after Thursday’s opening round. Friday was no improvement.

At 17, his eighth hole of the day, the water gobbled up Herbert’s first two approaches to the island green, short on the first, long on the second. Playing five from the tee, he hit the rough left, chipped on and two-putted for an 8.

Only nine players have made a higher score at the 17th at the Players, the most recent being Byeong Hun An’s 11 in the first round in 2021.

It got worse, and weirder, for Herbert at the 379-yard par-4 fourth.

The trouble began with an errant tee shot into the left rough. He found water, and took a drop. And again. And again. By the time it was over, he wound up with a 9. The record-worst score at No. 4 is Phillip Hancock’s 12 in 1985.

That wasn’t the end of Herbert’s headaches. At No. 6, he reached the green in regulation but four-putted for a double bogey. At No. 7, a sudden gust blew a chip right back down the hill to his starting position. Result: another bogey.

A cloud seemed to hang over two-thirds of Herbert’s playing group during the week, including a sextuple-bogey 10 from Aaron Wise at the 18th on Thursday.

Herbert’s week underscores Sawgrass’s many pitfalls that lurk even for accomplished professionals. He previously appeared at the Players in 2022, making the cut but ending in a tie for 68th with a 7-over 295. He stands 51st in the Official World Golf Ranking.

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Exclusive: Rookie of the year, recent winner among PGA Tour players given OK for controversial Saudi event

The reigning Rookie of the Year is among the players granted permission to compete at an event in Saudi Arabia next month.

The PGA Tour’s reigning Rookie of the Year and a winner last season are among the players granted permission to compete at a controversial tournament in Saudi Arabia next month.

While the Tour has declined to reveal the exact number or the names of those who requested releases for the PIF Saudi International, multiple sources have told Golfweek that Cameron Young, Lucas Herbert and Cameron Champ are among the members who obtained waivers to compete in Saudi Arabia. Three Korn Ferry Tour players also received releases.

Young was named the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year after earning more than $6 million during a debut campaign in which he finished second five times, including at the Open Championship in St. Andrews. Herbert won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October 2021 and finished the season with more than $2.5 million in official prize money.

Herbert’s agent, Davis Holman, confirmed that the 27-year-old Australian plans to compete at King Abdullah Economic City on Feb. 2-5. Representatives for Young and Champ, a three-time winner on Tour who has emerged as a leading voice for racial equality, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While sources say both Young and Champ obtained releases to compete in the Saudi International, it is not known if they actually intend to do so.

A Tour spokesperson declined to comment on specific players who have obtained releases.

PGA Tour members are required to obtain conflicting event releases to play events on other tours. In 2022, the Tour denied waivers to members for a Saudi-sponsored event near London, which was the first tournament staged by the rival LIV Golf league. The Tour and LIV Golf are now locked in an antitrust lawsuit that has bitterly divided players on both circuits.

The Saudi International was created in 2019 by the regime’s Public Investment Fund, which is also bankrolling LIV Golf. Offering lucrative appearance fees, the event attracted many high-profile PGA Tour stars who later jumped to LIV, including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.

The tournament was originally a DP World Tour stop, but the European circuit is also now being sued by LIV. The 2023 Saudi International is not officially part of LIV Golf’s schedule but is instead listed as an event on the Asian Tour, in which LIV invested more than $200 million last year. That distinction accounts for why the PGA Tour did not reverse precedent and deny releases to members, who are independent contractors.

The number of Tour members seeking waivers to play the Saudi International is down sharply from 2022, even allowing for the players who have since signed with LIV Golf.

Asked why Herbert has opted to play the event and whether he is concerned that doing so will alienate fellow PGA Tour members given the ongoing litigation, his agent Holman said: “He has played the event in the past, enjoys the golf course and it fits well into his playing schedule following the Dubai Desert Classic.”

Herbert has competed in the Saudi International for the past three years, with his best finish a tie for 21st in 2022. Young and Champ have never previously competed in the tournament.

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2022 Genesis Scottish Open odds, field notes, best bets and picks

With two top 10s in the last three years, can Justin Thomas finally win at the Renaissance?

A week before the final major of 2022, a major championship-type field has traveled to the Renaissance Club for the Genesis Scottish Open.

Fourteen of the world’s top 15 players are expected to tee it up Thursday, with the lone missing name being No. 3 Rory McIlroy (who played in this week’s JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor).

Last year’s champion Min Woo Lee, who made the Scottish Open his second DP World Tour win, tied for 27th in his last PGA Tour start (U.S. Open at The Country Club).

This event is co-sanctioned by the Tour and DP World Tour, so LIV Golf members have been denied entry into the event — for most, anyway. Ian Poulter, Adrian Otaegui, and Justin Harding had their DP World Tour suspensions temporarily stayed Monday, which could allow them to play in the event.

Golf course

Renaissance Club | Par 70 | 7,237

The par-3 17th hole is a welcome respite before the difficult 18th hole that plays at 485 yards and likely into the prevailing wind at Renaissance Club.

Key statistics

  • SG: Tee to green
  • Par 3 efficiency 200-225 yards

Data Golf Information

Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. TPC Louisiana, 2. Olympia Fields CC, 3. Caves Valley Golf Club

Trending: 1. Xander Schauffele (last three starts: T-18, T-14, 1), 2. Will Zalatoris (MC, T-5, T-2), 3. Matthew Fitzpatrick (MC, T-10, 1)

Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Jon Rahm (7.7 percent), 2. Scottie Scheffler (7 percent), 3. Justin Thomas (5.8 percent)

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Defending champion Billy Horschel closing in on Tiger Woods’ record in WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

“There are stats that Tiger has accomplished and that he has that are just mind blowing.”

Billy Horschel is more than halfway to catching Tiger Woods.

With a 3-and-2 victory over Tom Hoge on Thursday at windy Austin Country Club in Texas in the second round of pool play in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Horschel has won seven consecutive matches in the event.

The defending champion last lost, 4 and 2 to J.T. Poston, in last year’s second round of pool play. He won his last five matches last year to win the title and the first two this year.

That leaves him six short of matching Woods, who holds the record with 13 consecutive wins in the Match Play from 2003-05. Woods also is the only player to win back-to-back Match Play titles.

“There are stats that Tiger has accomplished and that he has that are just mind blowing. Things that you just can’t imagine and when you think about 13 straight matches won, you don’t think that’s a big deal, but when you realize it, it’s two years of match play and not losing almost,” Horschel said. “There’s nothing I can say that someone hasn’t already said about him, so if somehow I was able to continue on a great streak and win the next five matches and then come back and win one match next year, it would be really cool to have my name next to him.”

WGC-Match Play: Yardage book | Cool merch | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+

Horschel will play Thomas Pieters in the final round of pool play; Pieters moved to 1-1-0 with a 1-up win over Min Woo Lee. Horschel made a 50-footer for birdie on the first hole to grab a lead he never relinquished.

“I think I don’t toot my own horn. I’m not one of those guys to tell you how great I am at what I do,” said Horschel, the 2014 FedEx Cup champion. “I’m a grinder. Yes, I can make it look pretty sometimes but I’m OK playing in the mud and grinding it out and I’m a really good putter inside 10 feet, which is crucial in match play. I love the format and right now obviously I’m having a lot of success.

“I’ve been lucky that the two guys I’ve played have made some mistakes. So it’s allowed me not to have to really do anything special.”

Among others to move to 2-0-0 were Alex Noren, who won when Paul Casey conceded due to back spasms for the second consecutive day. Noren will face Corey Connors, who beat Louis Oosthuizen, 2 and 1, to move to 2-0-0, in the final round of pool play.

Also improving to 2-0-0 was Lucas Herbert, who beat Xander Schauffele, 1 up.

“I played a lot of amateur golf with Xander and I feel like he’s obviously had a quicker rise than I did to the PGA Tour and to that top 10 in the world, but I felt like back seven or eight years ago we probably had similar games and I feel like I’m getting somewhere near where he is,” Herbert said. “So I didn’t feel super out of place playing against him, I felt like I knew him and had spent a bit of time with him out at events and practicing and that kind of thing with him before.

“So I think that was a big benefit to me versus playing against someone I had not really met before and not played any golf against.”

Matt Fitzpatrick, who beat Ian Poulter, 4 and 2, also moved to 2-0-0, and Seamus Power won his second consecutive match with a 5-and-4 romp over Patrick Cantlay.

“This is a miracle. This is the closest I’ve gotten to getting out of the group,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’m happy with the start. The good thing is it’s in my hands, so if I go out and win tomorrow, I’ll go through.”

The third round of pool play continues Friday. After Friday’s action, the field will be trimmed to 16 players and single elimination will begin Saturday.

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Winner’s Bag: Lucas Hebert, Butterfield Bermuda Championship

Check out the clubs that got the job done in Bermuda.

A complete list of the golf equipment Lucas Hebert used to win the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship:

DRIVER: TaylorMade SIM2 with (9 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green 70 X shaft (From $529.99 at Carl’s Golfland and Dick’s Sporting Goods)

FAIRWAY WOOD: TaylorMade SIM (15 degrees), with Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana DF 80 TX shaft (From $299.99 at taylormadegolf.com and carlsgolfland.com)

IRONS: TaylorMade P790 UDI (2),  P•7TW (3-4, 6-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts (TaylorMade P•7TW from $1,999 at taylormadegolf.com)

WEDGES: TaylorMade Milled Grind 2 (50, 56, 60 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (50) and KBS Hi-Rev 135X (54, 60) shafts (From $169.99 at Carl’s Golfland)

PUTTER: TaylorMade Spider X Chalk (From $279.99 at Carl’s Golfland and Dick’s)

BALL: TaylorMade TP5x (From $47.99 at Carl’s Golfland and Dick’s Sporting Goods)

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Lucas Herbert punches ticket to British Open with wire-to-wire win at European Tour’s Irish Open

The win is Herbert’s second on the European Tour.

Lucas Herbert began the week at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open with a 64 to take the lead and never looked back.

The 25-year-old Australian went wire-to-wire thanks to a 4-under 68 on Sunday to reach 19 under at Mount Juliet Estate and seal the deal for his second European Tour win. Herbert’s first came in early 2020 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, where he defeated Christiaan Bezuidenhout in a playoff.

With this win, Herbert punched his ticket to the 149th British Open later this month at Royal St George’s in Sandwich, England. Joining him at the Open will be runner-up Rikard Karlberg, who finished three shots back at 16 under, and Johannes Veerman, who placed third at 15 under.

“It’s a bit fulfilling really, I feel like I was probably really at one of my low points in my life two years ago when I played at Lahinch in the Irish Open,” said Herbert after the round. “The more big events that you play the better. You get more comfortable in those so I can take some more opportunities when I do get those chances.”

Next week the European Tour heads to the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, for the Scottish Open ahead of the year’s final men’s major championship.

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Lucas Herbert sets the pace at Irish Open; Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy lag behind

Lucas Herbert remains at the top of the Irish Open leaderboard after two rounds.

Lucas Herbert remains at the top of the Irish Open leaderboard after two rounds on the strength of his opening 8-under 64 at Mount Juliet Estate in Thomastown, Ireland.

Herbert, an Australian, followed with a 4-under 67 on Friday that included both a bogey and a double-bogey. He balanced it out with a total of eight birdies on the day and is at 13 under for 36 holes.

After winning last season’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic, Herbert is looking for his second European Tour win.

Despite not being thrilled with his big numbers on Friday, Herbert was pleased with how he’d set himself up for the weekend. He leads Grant Forrest and Andy Sullivan, both at 11 under, by two shots.

“I think it’s definitely something that comes with a win where you know you’ve proved to yourself that you can win, you can hit shots under pressure and actually win,” he told the European Tour. “So I’ll be taking a lot of experience from that into the weekend and try and draw on that confidence as well.”

Defending champion John Catlin was T17 at 7 under, two shots clear of 2019 British Open champion Shane Lowry and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy.

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