While Australian Lucas Herbert had just made his breakthrough on the PGA Tour with a win at the Bermuda Championship, he is still an unknown name to many golf fans, even though he has risen to number 43 in the world.
Most of this can be attributed to the fact that Herbert mainly competes on the European Tour, although American fans are likely to see a lot more of him now that he secured his PGA Tour status with victory in Bermuda.
In this week’s episode of Subpar, the 25-year-old explained to presenters Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz how he ended up on the European Tour in the first place.
The 12-minute driver who led Lucas Herbert to victory in Bermuda
James Colgan
“I’ve always loved playing in America. I never really wanted to go through Europe, ”said Herbert. “And then I had a really nice end to the 2017 season. I was seventh in the rankings in Australia, which gave me several starts on the European Tour with the co-sanctioning events. We went to the Q-School of the PGA Tour China and the Q-School of the Canadian Tour. I’m not the biggest fan of China, and that’s probably the nice way of putting it, too.
“So I was sitting in a hotel room in China at the Q-School and thought: How do I not come back here?” Herbert continued. “I just looked through, went to the Singapore Open and came in 8th, which was me brought into the Open. And, ironically, I got a start at the China Open, and I’ve had some Aussie tour starts that have been sanctioned jointly with Europe, and I thought you know what? I’ll just try it in Europe. So, yeah, in hindsight I called my manager and I was like, hey, can you try to get me the way it always starts in Europe. I don’t care what events it is. I just play the worst events that nobody wants to travel to. Anything. I’ll play anything in Europe just to get started and play out there just so I don’t have to go to China. So this is how the European trip began. ”
The strategy turned out to be a good strategy for Herbert, who won the European Tour twice (the Dubai Desert Classic 2020 and the Irish Open 2021) before claiming his first win on the PGA Tour in Bermuda.
For more of Herbert, including his favorite places in the world, and why building a Presidents Cup team is so important to him, read the full interview below.
As a four-year-old member of the first class of college women golfers in Columbia, Jessica trumps anyone on the masthead. She can also leave them behind in the office, where she is mainly responsible for the production of print and online features and oversees large special projects, such as GOLF’s first Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series “A Round With” debuted in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video on GOLF.com.