\n\tSTERLING:\u00a0If there were any doubts about Lucas Herbert\u2019s first-round performance being unsustainable, he put them to rest emphatically on Friday.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Ripper GC stalwart followed his opening 8-under 64 with a bogey-free 9-under 63 on Friday at Maaden LIV Golf Virginia 2026, extending his lead to six shots at 17-under par \u2014 the largest 36-hole lead this season and tied for the second-largest lead after two rounds in league history.<\/p>\n
\n\tOnly one player, Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia, is within nine strokes of Herbert\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a way that I can describe this that\u2019s not going to sound super arrogant. Just things started coming to me easily,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cThe shots that you would see into greens happened and worked the way that you saw them, and putts that you would read to break a certain way just did exactly what you kind of thought. Maybe even at times you\u2019d hit a bad shot, and you\u2019d have judged it wrong and the bad shot now becomes good.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTo be honest, I probably tried to enjoy it a little bit out there because I was able to in the moment see that that was happening and kind of just be able to sit back and appreciate it a little bit and understand this is pretty not normal. You don\u2019t know how many times as a golfer you\u2019re going to get to experience that kind of feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHerbert\u2019s Strokes Gained Total average of +7.82 per round is a LIV Golf record for 36 holes. He gained +8.60 strokes on Friday, which is his second-best performance of his LIV Golf career, exceeded only by the +10.426 when he shot a 10-under 61 in the final round last year in Mexico City to tie for second.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m going to say this golf course is probably harder than Mexico City was playing at the time,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to compare them. I\u2019m sat here 30 minutes removed from that round, so it\u2019s pretty easy for me to say right now I\u2019m more proud of this than I am Mexico City. But as time goes on, I\u2019ll get a better appreciation for how I\u2019ve played the last two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOf course, he is only at the halfway mark as he seeks his first LIV Golf individual win.<\/p>\n
\n\tGarcia fired a 5-under 67 in tricky, windy conditions to sit in solo second at 11 under. The return to form for Garcia has been one of the stories of the week. He ranks second in the field in Strokes Gained Off the Tee (+3.33) and third in Strokes Gained Putting (+4.56).<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Fireballs captain spoke about the difficulty of committing to shots in the swirling wind.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen it\u2019s blowing 20 miles an hour on a tough golf course, sometimes the pin starts on the left side, the wind is off the left, and you\u2019re like, OK, I want to hit a little draw, but you don\u2019t want to do it because if you short-side yourself on the left side, then you chip in from the short-side and downwind,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt like I did a very good job for the conditions that we were playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCleeks GC veteran Richard Bland made the biggest move of the day, shooting a 6-under 66 to climb to solo third at 7-under, one of Friday\u2019s best performances outside of Herbert\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHopefully I can have a strong weekend and try and give Herby a run for his money,\u201d said the 53-year-old Bland, \u201cbut if he keeps playing like the way he\u2019s playing, we\u2019re playing for second.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPaul Casey is putting together his best start of the season so far for Crushers GC, shooting a 4-under 68 on Friday to move into a tie for fourth at 6 under alongside teammate Charles Howell III and Southern Guards GC\u2019s Dean Burmester.<\/p>\n
\n\tCasey spoke glowingly about the challenge the Trump National Washington DC course presented on a blustery afternoon.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m going to say this is a major-level golf course,\u201d Casey said. \u201cI don\u2019t know its history or that kind of stuff, so I don\u2019t know if they have aspirations to ever push for that kind of event. Lucas has obviously gone bananas, but apart from that, take him out of the mix, it\u2019s a big challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLIV Golf\u2019s current top three players in season-long points \u2014 Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Thomas Detry \u2014 are among five players tied for seventh at 5 under.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the team front, Ripper GC extended its lead, moving to 21 under as a team, six clear of Crushers GC and Cleeks Golf Club, who are tied for second at 15 under. 4Aces GC sits fourth at 14 under, with Torque GC and Legion XIII tied for fifth at 12 under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STERLING:\u00a0If there were any doubts about Lucas Herbert\u2019s first-round performance being unsustainable, he put them to rest emphatically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-659895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659895","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=659895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}