One of the Australians is firmly in control of the Australian Open midway through the tournament.
Lucas Herbert, who joined LIV Golf in January 2024, shot a 6-under 66 on Friday to move into the lead at Kingston Heath Golf Club Expanded to 4 holes of 36 holes. He finished at 14 under. But Herbert knew there was no room for complacency at this point. The Bendigo, Victoria native still has plenty of work to do in the third and final round.
“I played 36 holes on the sand strip this weekend,” Herbert said of his spot on the leaderboard.
“I think the easiest trap to fall into is thinking you have control of the game. It doesn't take much for it to jump up and bite you. So, that's definitely where I want to be, but I certainly can't control it.”
Herbert, who maintained a one-shot advantage after the first day, started strong on Friday with an eagle and two birdies on his first three holes. Strong winds then picked up, which helps explain why Herbert played the next nine holes at 1 over. But he saved his only miss of the week with consecutive birdies on the par-4 10th and the 13th, 14th and 15th holes.
“I knew I had to stay aggressive,” Herbert added.
“I knew the wind was going to get stronger later in the round, so getting off to a good start really helped because it meant I wasn’t scrambling to finish at par or 1 under through nine holes. In some cases I was 4 or 5 under at the time, so yeah, it was a good gain from that.”
Still, Herbert knew he had to stay aggressive all weekend, especially with so much talent on the leaderboard, like Cam Smith.
Smith was 6 under, eight shots behind.
“I'm looking forward to [Smith] running. I can't shoot 72-72 this weekend and expect to win this golf tournament. There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Herbert noted.
“I'm expecting these guys behind me to charge. If it rains tomorrow morning, the golf course is still going to be soft. Honestly, I hope it doesn't, it bounces back very, very quickly and starts to resemble the sand strip we all know and love. So, yeah, I have a lot of work to do this weekend, and yeah, like I said, I expect these guys to work really hard.”
Jack Milko is the golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Get more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jackmilko as well as.
