HORIZON IRISH OPEN

July 1, 2022

Lucas Herbert

Mount Juliet Estate

Quick Quotes

Q. Second round 68, just the one bad mark on your card. You must be happy with that?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I feel like it hasn't been two of my greatest days, and I'm still in that top 10 at the moment. In a good position going into the weekend it looks like. Shouldn't be too far away from the lead.

Obviously depends on what the afternoon field does but I can't see myself being too far out of the lead, goal for the week, get to 20-under and well on the way to doing that. If everything gets firing over the weekend, there's no reason why we can't be there.

Q. Course seems pretty soft and gettable at times. I imagine you've got a better cut at the draw at the moment.

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I had to pretend to be upset what I saw last night when I saw what the weather forecast looked like in the afternoon. Just luck of the draw. Some weeks you get, it some weeks you don't. PGA Championship, I got the bad side of the draw. There's times where you get the good side and the bad side and this week I got the good side.

Q. How does it feel as defending champion, does it feel like you have a weight on your shoulders, hopefully as the week goes on, that's alleviated a little bit?

LUCAS HERBERT: Probably somewhat, yeah. I mean, it's great to be honest. There's so much support here; I almost feel like an adopted Irishman this week. It's been great with Paddy as well. The crowd out there for him has been unbelievable. He just holed a putt on 9 to be pretty safe to make the cut. The roar that came out of them was pretty incredible. It's been nice to have both those out there this week.

Q. I was going to say, the fan presence must be incredible especially with Pádraig in your group. Do you feel like you get some of that inspiration from the fans as well?

LUCAS HERBERT: Definitely a little bit. I mean, it feels like the majority of them are out there for Paddy but definitely saw some boys out there wearing a red shirt yesterday, so I know there's a couple in the crowd for me and my parents are here, too. I know there's more than two in the crowd for me.