In addition, Herbert believes the Australian Open field will become even more star-studded in the coming months, revealing he has spoken to multiple other LIV players about potentially making a second trip down under for the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t throw any names out, I\u2019m not a breaking news journalist,\u201d Herbert told Australian reporters with a laugh.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u201cBut from what I can read between the lines, it was a matter of how we do get these guys into the tournaments? Rather than how do we get them to come down?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there were a lot of very promising conversations that I was hearing.<\/p>\n
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 14: Lucas Herbert of Ripper GC hits out of a bunker on the 12th during day one of LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club on February 14, 2025 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t do a lot of selling of the tournament,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cGuys know the quality of the golf course, the quality of the event, the names on the trophy.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously a Masters and an Open invitation now for the winner, so these guys are chomping at the bit to get down there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that the guys that I spoke to are able to get into these events and come down and see how good Sandbelt golf is for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
A ticket to Augusta and Royal Birkdale next year is a huge carrot to dangle in front of LIV golfers who do not have exemptions into the majors.<\/p>\n
The Open at least offers anyone the chance to play qualifying tournament, but The Masters is a relatively closed shop with Augusta National only handing out invites.<\/p>\n
The chance to gain entry, as well as Royal Melbourne hosting for the first time since 1991, has Herbert convinced the field for this year\u2019s event will be up there with when Australia hosted the Presidents Cup in recent times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it could be one for the ages,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always done well with Aussie Opens when we\u2019ve had Presidents Cups in Australia, 2011 and 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve always kind of handballed us a very good field, but I think outside of that, this might be one of the better fields I\u2019ve seen for an Australian Open in the past, sort of, 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I take myself out of it, and put my golf fan hat on for a moment, it\u2019s pretty cool to see these guys come down and play, and someone like Rory taking the game more globally than what he has done maybe previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has played out in Australia before, I\u2019m not going to write that off, but in the last couple of years, and looking at his schedule next year, and the following year, he definitely wants to play more globally, which is great.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen the success of LIV Adelaide in Australia and the impact that\u2019s had on golf in Australia, so our national open can sort of be apart of that now, and we\u2019re having some of these world class players come down and play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucas Herbert of Australia tees off during the third round of the 2024 ISPS Handa Australian Open Golf tournament at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne on November 30, 2024. (Photo by William WEST \/ AFP) \/ –IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE–Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Herbert also said that he believes the move to make the tournament stand-alone again was necessary to attract top talent.<\/p>\n
For three years following the Covid-19 pandemic interruption, the men\u2019s and women\u2019s Australian Opens were held on the same course at the same time.<\/p>\n
It was heavily criticised by the players, particularly by Cameron Smith at Kingston Heath last year, with concerns about course set up, tee times and the timing of the event among the many issues raised by players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tricky. I can really empathise with what they were trying to do,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see the view that they probably had, but it\u2019s just so hard to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s really tough to find golf courses that work for both the men and the women because inevitably you\u2019re going to get people comparing the scores in the men\u2019s event versus the women\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, personally, they\u2019re just two different styles of golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think women\u2019s golf shouldn\u2019t be put against men\u2019s golf – definitely not on the same golf course in the same week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t think the test is fair to test them in the same ways because women have different strengths and different weaknesses from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
This handout photo taken and released by the Asian Tour on May 11, 2025 shows Lucas Herbert of Australia celebrating his victory during round four of the 2025 International Series Japan at Caledonian Golf Club in Chiba. (Photo by Graham Uden \/ Asian Tour \/ AFP) \/ RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO \/ ASIAN TOUR \/ GRAHAM UDEN ” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS – NO ARCHIVESSource: AFP<\/p>\n
For Herbert, he is fully focused on winning a maiden national title to earn his place at Augusta and Birkdale, and put his name alongside many of the sport\u2019s greatest names on the Stonehaven Cup.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old enjoyed a strong year, winning the Asian Tour\u2019s International Series Japan event in May, as well as boasting three top five finishes in the first six LIV tournaments of the season.<\/p>\n
He also came through qualifying to play The Open at Royal Portrush, although he missed the cut.<\/p>\n
It was part of a stretch where his game dropped away, coming no better than tied 25th in a single event in the back half of the LIV season.<\/p>\n
Herbert is now hoping that a solid break coupled with two tournaments before the Australian Open will give him a strong lead in.<\/p>\n
He will play the Australian PGA in Brisbane the week prior, but in November, he will also head to the Hunter Valley to defend his NSW Open crown.<\/p>\n
For Herbert\u2019s sake, it will hopefully serve as ideal preparation before tackling a course he is well versed in.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Bendigo, Herbert would often make the trek down to the city for junior, amateur and club competitions at Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Caption: 2024 NSW Open champion Lucas Herbert during the final round at Murray Downs. Photo: Golf NSWSource: Supplied<\/p>\n
He even lied about his age to volunteer at the 2011 Presidents Cup, telling organisers he was 16 when he was still 15 in order to carry a scoreboard around the hallowed turf.<\/p>\n
In was then that he asked his now LIV colleague Phil Mickelson for an autograph, only to be shut down by the six-time major winner.<\/p>\n
Herbert raised the story with him when they played together at the 2022 Open at St Andrews with Mickelson giving him a signed glove as an apology, and says the evidence can be found on a YouTube video, replaying the entire coverage of the Sunday singles.<\/p>\n
This time out he wants to make happier memories at Royal Melbourne, and in turn, go back to Augusta for the second time in his career after missing the cut on debut in 2022. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Herbert said of the exemptions on offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s a pretty clear pathway now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you went back three months, I\u2019d probably mentally written off many chances to play a Masters again.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because it was tough to know how it was ever going to play out with exemptions, and how the green jackets would look at us, and over time how things have changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously now there\u2019s a much clearer pathway for us to be able to tee it up there in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very, very exciting and it sort of gives me chills thinking about holding an Aussie Open trophy on Sunday of the tournament, and knowing I\u2019ve got a spot in The Masters and The Open off the back of it, that\u2019s pretty much golfing mecca for an Aussie player, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIV Golf star Lucas Herbert has become the latest big name to commit to the upcoming Australian Open,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[5487,29996,2620,64,102300,11537,63,689,102309,102312,63655,102299,651,102307,33066,3193,102316,102302,102314,102304,2105,755,9262,5505,102315,1745,102306,102301,102305,22763,5507,102303,24247,5494,647,102311,1736,677,102308,1205,701,756,757,29460,42357,85,102313,660,60162,102310],"class_list":["post-152791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-adam-scott","tag-afp-photo","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-au","tag-augusta-and-royal-birkdale","tag-augusta-national-inc","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-double","tag-australian-reporters","tag-bendigo","tag-breaking-news-journalist","tag-brisbane","tag-caledonian-golf-club","tag-cam-davis","tag-cameron-smith","tag-club-competitions","tag-colleagues-joining","tag-cups","tag-fout-putt-collapse","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-golf","tag-golf-course","tag-golf-courses","tag-golf-fan-hat","tag-golf-news","tag-graham-uden","tag-handout-photo","tag-hull-wins","tag-ideal-preparation","tag-lucas-herbert","tag-maiden-national-title","tag-mandatory-credit","tag-marc-leishman","tag-melbourne","tag-national-open","tag-new-zealand","tag-oceania","tag-pandemic-interruption","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-queensland","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-royal-portrush","tag-royal-queensland","tag-ryan-fox","tag-sports","tag-the-grange-golf-club","tag-victoria","tag-william-west","tag-world-class-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}