DUBAI DUTY FREE IRISH OPEN

July 3, 2021

Lucas Herbert

Mount Juliet Estate

Quick Quotes

Q. Started the day with a two shot lead and ended the day with a one-shot lead courtesy of a round of 70. Give us your assessment of your play today.

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I played okay. In one aspect, it's kind of frustrating. I could have really put a good one away and felt like I got too far away from the majority of the field, but 15 probably has just left the door open a touch.

So still going to have to really be on it tomorrow. Also it was pretty tough out there. The back nine the wind was swirling and blowing a lot. Didn't hit a lot of bad shot. Couldn't quite get some putts to fall. Felt like I maybe played all right but just didn't get the reward for it. Can't be too upset.

Q. How much did those conditions examine the different aspects of the game?

LUCAS HERBERT: I think it just made the golf course play quite a lot different out there. Hitting some different clubs into holes there and taking different lines off tees. Yeah, I mean, I've always been a fan of when it gets tougher, definitely feel like I just want to play my best golf and feel like I can show my talent off, I guess. So yeah, I was happy to see the wind, but then, yeah, it was somewhat frustrating as well. It was a good day.

Q. Tomorrow, an opportunity to win this historic championship with fabulous names on the trophy?

LUCAS HERBERT: For sure. Trying to stick to my own goals. At this point in time I feel like I would love to see my score get to 20-under and that was the goal today and couldn't really get it there. If I can get to 20-under, I feel like it's going to be pretty hard to catch, and if I am caught, someone has played really good golf and they probably deserve to win it.

If I can stick to my own goals, hopefully holding a trophy or anything like that takes care of itself.

Q. How do you feel you played today?

LUCAS HERBERT: Solid day. Obviously conditions got pretty tricky out there and definitely tested everyone enough to get the scoring to go out a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, it was a solid bad day I guess you'd say but in some ways frustrating. I felt like I could have put some real distance between myself and the field and can't do that.

Q. Is the approach tomorrow to just keep doing what you've been doing all week?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I want to get to 20-under as a personal goal. So if I can do that, someone's got to come catch me, and if they do, good luck to them.

Q. That was a day when it looked like you might get to 20-under. Slightly stalled on the back nine. But really all good, apart from these conditions, a 70 today.

LUCAS HERBERT: It was pretty tough out there that back nine. I made a couple of bad putts and got a little unlucky with a couple of breaks but I didn't feel like I hit a lot of bad shots out there. I mean, you're in the right position, leading going into Sunday, so can't be too upset with it.

Q. Australian colleagues of mine in press rooms have been naming you as somebody who might be the next big thing in Australian golf for quite some time, especially since you won the Dubai Desert Classic last year. How big is tomorrow for you?

LUCAS HERBERT: I'll think more after I finish tomorrow. Look, any tournament you're playing well at, it's a great opportunity to showcase your skills and hopefully progress further up the World Rankings and all the bells and whistles that come with it. I just want to treat tomorrow like a normal day. I've played really nicely this week, setting my own goals out there, and I feel if I can go and set my own goals tomorrow and set my own expectations, then there's no reason why I can't show that off again.

Q. Do you see that title as being a goal or a steppingstone to something bigger in your career?

LUCAS HERBERT: The Irish Open is pretty cool and if you can win an event with Tommy Fleetwood and Rory in the field, I don't think anyone's going to try to knock that out of your possession any time soon.

So yeah, tomorrow is a massive chance, and you know, obviously I think in time to come I'll probably look back on it and realise it more, but at the moment, I'm trying to stay pretty focused on the moment and really feel like I just play my game and let that sort of take care of itself.

Q. In the end, today's 70 was good in terms of what you were -- as opposed to looking at the beginning of the day, it was still a good round. But when you look at what you have tomorrow as a chance to win, how are you going to go about it with the 21 birdies that you made in the first 47 holes? That was extraordinary.

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, if we can just try to get back to that golf, depending on the conditions. Just going to have to play the golf course the way it is.

Obviously played quite nice the first 54 holes, so just keep the same attitude and try -- to be honest, winning takes care of itself if you do the rest properly. Maybe the last three or four holes, you can start thinking about that kind of thing.

But there's still a lot of golf ahead of us. I didn't tie up the tournament the way I could have today. I felt like if I got to 17-under, that probably shopped a lot more guys having a chance. 15-under just let's them in a little bit. Still a lot of work to do tomorrow and on the 18th green tomorrow afternoon if I'm still in the lead, winning is a great feeling.

Q. You may be a wire-to-wire winner; that hasn't happened since 2014. It's only happened I think four times in the modern history of the Irish Open. That's a hell of an achievement, if it should happen.

LUCAS HERBERT: It would be a pretty cool one to achieve. A win's a win, right. Doesn't kind of matter how do you it. Everyone gets lucky or unlucky with the days they play well and the days they don't play well.

To win the Irish Open would be really cool, whether it's wire-to-wire or not. I think it would be a really cool one to put on your resume that you've won the Irish Open.