LIV Golf star credits bizarre beach practice for Open qualification

Lucas Herbert’s secret to snatching one of the final Open spots for Royal Portrush?

An enforced evening practice session on a Wirral beach.

The Australian made it to the north west of England for Final Qualifying barely 12 hours before his first round at West Lancashire Golf Club after a dash from a LIV Golf event in Dallas on Sunday.

Then he shot classy rounds of 69 and 67 to win the qualifier and book his place into golf’s oldest major.

Herbert, a winner on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour before his LIV switch last year, made just three bogeys through his 36 holes in a fine display across the Merseyside links.

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“I’ve been doing a lot of work on the technique and I think we finally sort of felt like I had some good progress Sunday last week in Dallas,” he said afterwards, reflecting on his T40 finish over 4,000 miles away just 48 hours ago.

“To that point, it was probably the best I’ve played in three weeks despite probably the worst score I’ve had in three weeks.

“So I took a lot out of that round and did some practice down the beach last night actually so was able to sort of take some of that onto the course today and started to feel really comfortable out there.”

So, why the beach?

“I couldn’t find anywhere on a Monday night to hit a ball so we ended up there,” he told bunkered.co.uk.

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“We were down near Hoylake. It was not really low tide so I had to go and sort of make my own little flat square to hit off but we got here, it was like right on six o’clock the range had shut. 

“I probably hit 30 balls and that was sort of enough. I just took my 8-iron out there, just hit a few 8-irons.”

These, of course, were far from ideal circumstances for the 14 LIV players taking their last shot at Portrush after the dash from Dallas.

Yet Herbert, Dean Burmester and Lee Westwood all won their qualifiers as others failed to take advantage of the 20 available spots across the four qualifying sites.

“I thought my preparation was probably as good as it could be for what we had,” Herbert explained.

“I think it was a 9.20am flight from Dallas to London, then London to Manchester, drove here so got here at 6pm last night, did a little bit of chipping and then down the beach to hit a few balls.

“I got about five hours’ sleep last night which I was pretty happy with.

“I thought that was usually the worst time zone to try and move across from the US to here so I was happy with five hours’ sleep and that was enough.”

Indeed it was. Herbert, a lover of links golf, will now tee it up in his fifth Open at Portrush.

So can we put this rather serene masterclass in the 36-hole marathon simply down to a cathartic hit on the seaside?

“I think it makes a good story if I do,” he smiled, “so I’ll take it.”

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.