Open qualifier saw the light after playing with Day
GOLF: Victoria’s Lucas Herbert may be the first player to ever qualify for the US Open while wearing floral shorts.
When the Bendigo 23-year-old got to Oregon’s Portland Golf Club on Monday morning last week there was no breakfast to be found and he’d had only five hours sleep after making the seven-hour drive from Vancouver with caddy Craig Grigson – and his playing partners in the qualifying event for the year’s second major were both wearing pants.
Herbert had been playing in Canada, part of a golfing tour that included starts in Australia, Asia and Europe.
He had been going well, too, collecting a second third-place finish for the year in a European Tour event in Italy in May to continue his rise up the world rankings (he sits on 159), and securing a spot in next month’s Open Championship at Carnoustie via a top-10 finish in Singapore in January.
So he wasn’t completely surprised when he fired rounds of 66 and 63 in 36 qualifying holes at Portland to secure his major championship debut.
“We set some pretty good goals at the start of the year where we wanted to be rankings wise, and it’s pretty good when a lot of your goals get ticked off,” Herbert said.
The road to Shinnecock Hills, where Herbert will this week compete with the best players in the world, began last November at the Australian Open.
Herbert was paired with Queensland’s former world No.1 Jason Day in the final round and outplayed him too, but gave up a lead going into the back nine to finish tied for sixth.
Although he didn’t win, it gave Herb- ert an indication of where his game was placed.
“I played with Jason at the Australian Open and he wasn’t a ridiculously long way in front of where I thought my game was,” Herbert said.
“Even guys like that, the more I get exposed to them the more I feel that I am not that far away.
“As cool as it is (qualifying for the US Open), I still have a lot of work to do. An opportunity has come knocking at the door and I really have to take advantage of it.”