LIV Golf’s Lucas Herbert grabs commanding 36-hole lead at Australian Open

Local favorite Lucas Herbert holds the lead at the midway point of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

One of Australia’s own has firm control of the Australian Open midway through the championship.

Lucas Herbert, who joined LIV Golf in January 2024, fired a 6-under 66 at Kingston Heath Golf Club on Friday to extend his lead to four through 36 holes. He sits at 14-under par. But Herbert knows not to get complacent at this point. Plenty of work remains for the Bendigo, Victoria native throughout the third and final rounds.

“I’ve got 36 holes on the sandbelt this weekend,” Herbert said of his place on the leaderboard.

“I think the easiest trap to fall into would be to think you’ve got control of this tournament. It doesn’t take much to jump up and bite you. So, it’s definitely the position I want to be in, but I certainly don’t have control of it.”

Herbert, who held a one-shot advantage after day one, got off to a roaring start on Friday, making an eagle and two birdies on his first three holes. A stiff wind then began to pick up, which helps explain why Herbert played his next nine holes in 1-over par. But he salvaged his only dropped shot of the week at the par-4 10th with a string of birdies on the 13th, 14th, and 15th holes.

“I knew I had to stay aggressive,” Herbert added.

“I knew it was going to get windier later in the round, so getting off to a good start, really, really helped that because it meant that I wasn’t sort of scrambling at level par or 1-under through nine holes. I was 4 or 5-under there at some point, so yeah, good takeaways from that.”

Nevertheless, Herbert knows he must stay aggressive throughout the weekend, especially with plenty of talent farther down the leaderboard, such as Cam Smith.

Smith sits at 6-under, eight shots back.

“I’m expecting [Smith] to make a run. I can’t shoot 72-72 this weekend and expect to win this golf tournament. There’s a lot of work still to be done,” Herbert noted.

“I’m expecting these guys behind me to make a charge. If it rains tomorrow morning, the golf course will still be soft. I hope it doesn’t, honestly, it’s rebounded very, very quickly and it’s starting to play like the sandbelt we know and love. So yeah, I’ve still got a lot of work to do this weekend and yeah, like I said, I’m expecting those guys to be pushing pretty hard.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.