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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Liverpool: Australian golfer Lucas Herbert has opened up on the \u201cunnerving\u201d uncertainty surrounding LIV Golf, revealing he considered quitting the sport amid fears the breakaway league could collapse.<\/p>\n Herbert is one of seven Australians teeing it up at this week\u2019s Open Championship, which begins on Thursday at Royal Birkdale Golf Club outside Liverpool.<\/p>\n It has been a tumultuous year for LIV Golf after reports emerged in April that its major financial backer, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, would not continue funding the league beyond this season.<\/p>\n LIV Golf chief executive Scott O\u2019Neil has insisted the organisation is in talks to secure new investment, but the long-term future of the circuit \u2014 including its popular Adelaide event \u2014 remains uncertain.<\/p>\n Herbert and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith are representing Ripper GC this week, while fellow Australian Travis Smyth, who is also playing, has earned opportunities as a LIV reserve this season.<\/p>\n Herbert pocketed $US4 million ($A5.77 million) after winning his maiden LIV Golf League title in May in Virginia.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had plenty of existential crises since April when all hell broke loose in Mexico City for us,\u201d Herbert said by the 18th green after a practice round.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of questions for myself around, \u2018Is this what I want to keep doing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if that meant quitting golf, Herbert replied: \u201cYeah\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got no tour status [except in Australia]. I know how hard that was the first time. Do you still want to do that and is that what you want to do? I thought about it plenty and I don\u2019t have a lot of other qualifications, which doesn\u2019t help my case for any other work.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had plenty of existential crises since April when all hell broke loose.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucas Herbert<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve probably had four months [of it]. You\u2019re pretty much going to bed [wondering] whether I\u2019ll have a job tomorrow. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve got a job next week. Whether this house I\u2019m building, the employees I have, can I afford to pay their wages? I don\u2019t know what my life looks like past, well, sometimes a week. At times, it\u2019s been a couple of months. It\u2019s been unnerving.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of world we\u2019re living in now. There\u2019s not a lot of loyalty in business any more. People are always in it for themselves to get the best deal they can for themselves. It can put a dampener on the way you look at the world at times. Then you see some kids out there and you think, \u2018oh the world is fine\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The anxiety peaked during LIV\u2019s tournament in Mexico City when multiple media outlets reported the league was on the verge of collapse.<\/p>\n \u201cYou open your news feed and there were 10 posts in a row about LIV shutting down. Then you\u2019ve got 10 people sending it to you \u2026 while you\u2019re still processing it,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real strange mood because \u2026 you can imagine on any tour, with LIV with 57 players, or the PGA Tour where there is 250, there are rumours floating around.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was one [LIV] player who walked off during the pro-am and got a flight home because he thought it was all going to be cancelled that afternoon. Then you\u2019ve got guys at the other end saying it\u2019ll be fine. You just have a range of emotions … so it\u2019s really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the uncertainty, Herbert believes LIV\u2019s Adelaide tournament will survive.<\/p>\n \u201cIf LIV happens at all, we\u2019ll go to Adelaide. It\u2019s a no-brainer,\u201d he said. \u201cYou might play there 10 times the way the LIV schedule is going.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Smyth is the first Australian to tee off on Thursday at 5.47pm AEST, followed by Min Woo Lee (6.25pm), Jason Day (6.47pm), Cameron Smith (9.14pm), Herbert (11.09pm), Adam Scott (11.31pm) and Cameron John (12.50am Friday AEST).<\/p>\n World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion, while Smith\u2019s triumph in 2022 at St Andrews remains the only Australian victory since Greg Norman won at Royal St George\u2019s in 1993.<\/p>\n Conditions are expected to be firm and fast, with Herbert, contesting his sixth Open after a career-best tie for 15th in 2022, likening Royal Birkdale to a dry cricket outfield.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty firm out there \u2026 like you\u2019re playing a game of country cricket. They\u2019ve shaved it right down,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican golf fans will probably look at it and think, \u2018This course looks terrible.\u2019 This is what golf was designed to be from the start.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hit a three-iron yesterday that ran into a bunker at 300 yards (274 metres).\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/da44f796615214235dfdc371b9bf992621c21b79.jpeg\")
Australian golfer Lucas Herbert. Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Australia\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e7e61a202ebc33f1c3e892f84b87b8927f53b141.jpeg\")
Australia\u2019s Cameron Smith at the LIV event in Adelaide last year.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/97cc358a9d1f46afe46e6fd9c3a4e2d333725901.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773734113_832_3bae5fa21f63eec1103497ea26ef24f57ba1c8f0.png\")
Tom Decent<\/a> is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-799473","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\/799473","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=799473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}