DUBAI DUTY FREE IRISH OPEN

July 4, 2021

Lucas Herbert

Mount Juliet Estate

Press Conference

CLARE BODEL: Welcome, Lucas and nice to see you've brought the hardware with you. It's a trophy that's got many, many illustrious names on it from down the years. How does it feel to have your hands on that trophy?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, you're not going to get my hands off this one for a little while I think. This one is coming with me for a bit. I'm.

Looking at the names on that trophy, as well. It's pretty special. To add my name to that list is something that no one can take away from me now, and, yeah, very, very satisfying to do it.

CLARE BODEL: And with that win, when you've also secured your place in the Open, so how much are you looking forward to heading down to St. George's and rounding off a very busy summer?

LUCAS HERBERT: Any time you can get into The Open championship, it's a great experience. There's so many good courses on that rota, and I haven't played Royal St. George's yet but I'm looking forward to it. I don't think there's any bad Open Championships to play. I'm very much looking forward to that.

I think I just kind of want to celebrate this one a little bit first and then I'll be able to move on to that one.

Q. You gave a pretty good description of the round to Tim Barter in your TV interview but one shot I wanted to ask about was the long bunker shot on 16 which looked pretty special from where we were. How good was it, that shot to save par and how vital was it?

LUCAS HERBERT: I felt like the tournament was right there for me to take. Johannes had obviously hit it in the back bunker, and I went up and had a look, and it unfortunately had kind of half-buried in the back bunker. I had not seen one do that all week. So I was pretty surprised that the ball had done that.

So yeah, I felt like that that was my chance to hit one close and win the tournament. Wasn't an easy shot. But I felt like I had hit some really nice bunker shots earlier in the round and obviously on 15, as well.

So yeah, me and Nick were having a bit of a joke about it that it was just one more to sort of file in the memory bank of good bunker shots and just came out exactly as I wanted to and pretty much reacted exactly how I sort of drew it up and pictured it too. So very satisfying to do that.

Q. What you said to Tim, you said a couple years ago at Lahinch that you were at a pretty low bb, low point in your career, and I looked up your results, and yeah, they weren't great but they weren't horrible. What was going on at that stage that made you so low at that time?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, to be honest it didn't have a lot to do with the golf. I felt like I was playing okay. It was my first sort of full season out on Tour, so you can't be expected be to up there and contending every week, but I just wasn't really enjoying my life out on the road. I think at the end of that week, I was pretty much questioning whether this was the career I wanted to do. I never played full-time on Tour with a full TOUR card, and being away from home so much, as well, and I think that was the first taste of reality, and I don't know that I really enjoyed it that much at the time.

So that was just a lot of soul searching going on. I was probably treating the people around me that were -- you know, the closest that were looking after me the most, I wasn't treating them the way I probably should have. Yeah, it was just a big soul search after the following week, The Scottish Open and flew home. I had to do a lot of thinking and that Irish Open was definitely -- I think it was probably the low point.

Yeah, for it to come full circle now and be holding this trophy, it's really special.

Q. Did it take the win in Dubai to turn things around, or did you just have a change in attitude before you came back from Australia?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I mean, I finished out that year and kept my card and spent some good time at home, and then yeah, just had to make some tough decisions in my life as to whether this was what I wanted to do. I think just looking back on the results I had, when I had played well, I still had not won at that point.

But the results I had where I played really well, there's just no better feeling than coming off that 18th green on Sunday, having a good result under your belt. And I just felt like I didn't want to sit there at 30, 35, 40 and having hung up the clubs and being one of those guys that sits at the bar and goes "that could have been me" but I didn't want it do it.

I felt like I would have really resented that later in life, and it was worth what you had to put up for; it was worth the sacrifice to go and play this game professionally and do what I had to do.

Yeah, made some decisions, and it's still a grind out here. It's still tough to travel and play week-in and week-out, but it's part of the journey. Moments like this when you're holding these kind of trophies, this makes up for any of the setbacks or the sacrifices that you have to make throughout year.

Q. I was in Dubai when you won on Australia Day and you won it in a playoff, and now you've won today in pretty tough conditions, after those couple of leaked shots off the tee; what does it say about your actual makeup and mental makeup and your game that you did sort of come through again for a second time?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, coming through for a second time, I had a chance to win the New Zealand Open about a month after I won the first one, and really had not won much before. I think I probably didn't want to win enough at that New Zealand Open because I felt like I just had all of my taste satisfied a month earlier winning Dubai.

I think I realised that and reset some goals, and so now an event like this now, I was really hungry to win out there. I really wanted to win, and to do it wire-to-wire. And I proved so much to myself out there today, not only that, but to everyone else that the mental fortitude was there. I was able to hit the tough shots when I needed to, I was able to hit those tough par saves when I needed to, and yeah, I feel like this one is pretty satisfying from that point of view.

Q. When you're talking about looking to celebrate tonight, I know when were out in Dubai, they managed to spare a couple bottles of win. Can you find anything a bit more Irish tonight, do you think?

LUCAS HERBERT: I'm no weather man but I feel like a Guinness is in my future.

Q. On another note, I mean this in a nice way, you were just a trickle in your father's eye when Greg Norman won The Open at Royal St. George's in '93. Have you ever watched videotapes of Norman's win that year, and given the fact that you are now going to Royal St. George's?

LUCAS HERBERT: That was the one that Normie won by a lot, wasn't it? He played really good Sunday?

Q. Sort of the best golfers in the world were playing their best golf and Allan Border had the Aussie cricket team there when he won and got handed the Claret Jug handed by Gene Sarazen. I just thought now, going back to Royal St. George's, you haven't played there before, I guess?

LUCAS HERBERT: It is teeming down just on top of the studio, if you can't hear, as well.

I've been back and watched a little bit. I don't think I've watched it fully just because I've never played the course before. It's just hard to relate as much. But I've definitely watched old footage of Greg winning that event. The flowing blond locks that he had; he had like a black sweater on with a shark logo on it, pretty iconic from Greg, as well.

Yeah I've gone back and watched it a little bit but I'll definitely be revisiting that footage. I'm pretty sure it's on YouTube so I'll be looking at it before I go down to Royal St. George's for sure.

Q. Did you know that Greg had played the Irish Open at Mount Juliet when it was last there in '95?

LUCAS HERBERT: I did hear something about that this week that Greg played here. He didn't win, though, this week. I just read something about him playing here in '95.

Yeah, he's an icon of Australian sport, Australian golf. Yeah, if I could be mentioned in the same sentence as him it's pretty good, right.

Q. When Brett Rumford won the Irish Open up at Baltray, he got the trophy sent to him and it arrived in about 500 pieces, so keep it with you. Hold onto it tight.

LUCAS HERBERT: I might be checking this in as hand luggage. They are going to struggle to wrestle this one off me.

Q. I would be, because Brett is still waiting for a replacement?

LUCAS HERBERT: No good pr for the tournament right now, I think.

CLARE BODEL: I think we can let you get off and celebrate and keep your hands on that trophy, Lucas. Congratulations again.