‘Bitter and spiteful’: Aussie star’s stunning return

Herbert, a four-time winner around the world, including a breakthrough PGA Tour victory in 2021, hadn’t played since missing the cut at the British Open in July, deciding he needed to step away to make adjustments to his life and his game.

The 27-year-old from Bendigo, who also revealed his mother’s cancer battle during last year’s Australian Open, said a poor year on tour in 2023, where he was “under the pump so much”, had impacted his life on and off the course and he needed to find a way to be a “better person”.

He played his guitar, finally met his girlfriend’s family and, even though he didn’t think he played very well in California, returned in style with his mind certainly in a better place.

“I think I’d become probably a bitter and spiteful person. Not over the top, but I didn’t like the version of myself I look back on and see at The Open Championship. I think I was wound up pretty tight and kind of lashed out at people around me too quickly, too easily,” Herbert said in a revealing interview after the opening round at the Silverado Resort.

“I think the break was a good chance for me to be able to get away and reset, just get away from this life.

“I just think you’re under the pump so much, so much pressure on you externally and internally to play well. To be able to get away from that, you’re sort of able to find yourself a little bit again.

“I felt like if I could just come out here and be like a better person. The golf game’s kind of the next thing, but just being a better person I think to the people around me, my relationships, family, friends, that only benefits.

“And that was sort of maybe all I cared about coming here this week. And it’s really nice to shoot 63, but I’m going to do my best to go out there with the same attitude tomorrow and that is the main focus of the week”.

Herbert had climbed as high as 40 in the world rankings in 2022 and was in the top 50 for most of the 2023 before losing his way with three missed cuts leading into The Open, where he again failed to make the weekend and opted for time out knowing he was no chance of making the PGA Tour playoffs.

“Golf’s been getting me down pretty hard this year,” he said.

“It was just a tough stretch there where I had a lot going on both in my life and on the golf course as well.

“I missed the cut at The Open, I didn’t really want to think about golf or talk about golf for about a good month there, just needed to get away from the game and refresh everything.

“But hopefully taking that good break, refreshing, have a little reset, gives me a better chance to play well in the fall season and get some better results and get into the bigger events again next year.

“I feel like coming here this week I was ready to play again. That sort of tells me I was back in a good frame of mind to be able to come out here and just deal with adversity when it comes on the golf course.”

Originally published as Lucas Herbert returns from soul-searching two-month break to lead PGA Tour event