Lucas Herbert closed with an eagle at the par-4 9th for a bogey-free 8-under 63 at the Victoria GC to take a one-shot lead at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open.
“I felt like there were a lot of shots left out there,” said the Australian. “I feel like that with every round of golf, to be fair, but didn’t really think I holed that many putts.
“Just hit it quite nicely, got it into the right spots. Probably got a couple of lucky breaks here and there where shots that maybe weren’t the best didn’t get punished the way they could have.
“So look, if that’s the worst round of the week, I’d be pretty happy, but I would suggest that’s probably not going to be the worst round of the week.
“You’ve just got to take your luck when you get it. There’s days where you can play really well and just nothing goes for you. So yeah, I’m going to be happy with that.”
Ryggs Johnston of the USA and Japan’s Rintaro Nakano are tied in second place at 7-under.
Australia’s Cam Smith, who finished runner-up at last week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship, is tied in fourth place at 6-under alongside New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori as well as Finland’s Oliver Lindell and American Jordan Gumberg who both stayed bogey-free.
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| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HERBERT, Lucas | -8 | 63 |
| 2 | JOHNSTON, Ryggs | -7 | 65 |
| | NAKANO, Rintaro (AM) | -7 | 65 |
| 4 | KOBORI, Kazuma | -6 | 65 |
| | LINDELL, Oliver | -6 | 65 |
| | SMITH, Cam | -6 | 65 |
| | GUMBERG, Jordan | -6 | 65 |
| 8 | PENGE, Marco | -5 | 67 |
| | CELLI, Filippo | -5 | 66 |
| | KIM, MK | -5 | 67 |
| HIGGS, Harry | -5 | 66 | |
| | SOUTHGATE, Matthew | -5 | 66 |
| | CROWE, Harrison | -5 | 66 |
| 14 | KO, Jeong weon | -4 | 67 |
| | DEL SOLAR, Cristobal | -4 | 67 |
| | FRANCES, Alexander George | -4 | 68 |
| | COLSAERTS, Nicolas | -4 | 67 |
| | GALE, Daniel | -4 | 68 |
| | STUBBS, Jasper | -4 | 68 |
| | KELLY, Andrew | -4 | 68 |
| | NEMECZ, Lukas | -4 | 68 |
| | RANKIN, Brett | -4 | 67 |
| | GARCIA, Sebastian | -4 | 67 |
| | DE BRUYN, Jannik | -4 | 67 |
| | HILLIER, Daniel | -4 | 68 |
| GIRRBACH, Joel | -4 | 68 | |
| 27 | PAGE, Nathan | -3 | 69 |
| | GILBERT, Josiah (AM) | -3 | 69 |
| | WRIGHT, Michael | -3 | 68 |
| | VILIPS, Karl | -3 | 69 |
| | IEREMIA, Denzel | -3 | 68 |
| | HOPEWELL, Hayden | -3 | 69 |
| | LEISHMAN, Marc | -3 | 68 |
| | APHIBARNRAT, Kiradech | -3 | 69 |
| 35 | AYORA, Angel | -2 | 69 |
| | LAMB, Corey | -2 | 70 |
| | MCLEOD, Jake | -2 | 69 |
| | SADDIER, Adrien | -2 | 69 |
| | GRIFFIN, Matthew | -2 | 69 |
| | BECKER, Braden | -2 | 70 |
| | SHAUN, Corey | -2 | 70 |
| | BEKIRIAN, Jean | -2 | 70 |
| | PULKKANEN, Tapio | -2 | 69 |
| | ELVIRA, Manuel | -2 | 70 |
| | RUMFORD, Brett | -2 | 70 |
| | GARCIA-HEREDIA, Alfredo | -2 | 70 |
| | VON DELLINGSHAUSEN, Nicolai | -2 | 70 |
| | OGILVY, Geoff | -2 | 69 |
| | VAN DRIEL, Darius | -2 | 70 |
| | MICHELUZZI, David | -2 | 70 |
| BARBIERI, Nathan | -2 | 69 | |
| | SMITH, Jordan | -2 | 70 |
| | SCHOTT, Freddy | -2 | 69 |
| 54 | DUNCAN, Tyler | -1 | 71 |
| | SANCHEZ, Matias | -1 | 70 |
| | DREWITT, Brett | -1 | 71 |
| | AMAT, Bastien | -1 | 71 |
| | SENIOR, Jack | -1 | 71 |
| | BLAND, Adam | -1 | 71 |
| | LUCK, Curtis | -1 | 71 |
| | WHARTON, Ben | -1 | 70 |
| | SMYLIE, Elvis | -1 | 70 |
| | CANTERO, Ivan | -1 | 71 |
| | LAWSON, Deyen | -1 | 70 |
| | MCKINNEY, Connor | -1 | 71 |
| | FLYNN, Lawry | -1 | 71 |
| | MARTIN, Andrew | -1 | 70 |
| | POWER HORAN, Thomas | -1 | 71 |
| | QUAYLE, Anthony | -1 | 71 |
| | MORRISON, James | -1 | 70 |
| | PEAKE, Ryan | -1 | 70 |
| | JOHN, Cameron | -1 | 71 |
| | MUNRO, Jack | -1 | 70 |
| | GEARY, Josh | -1 | 70 |
| | LEE, Min Woo | -1 | 71 |
| | ARMSTRONG, Josh | -1 | 70 |
| | DING, Wenyi | -1 | 71 |
| 78 | CARRUTHERS, Coby (AM) | Par | 72 |
| | GØTH-RASMUSSEN, Jonathan | Par | 71 |
| | BIONDI, Fred | Par | 72 |
| | REITAN, Kristoffer | Par | 72 |
| | CLEMENTS, Todd | Par | 71 |
| | ECCLES, Ben | Par | 72 |
| | PARRY, John | Par | 71 |
| | ZUNIC, Jordan | Par | 72 |
| | WU, Ashun | Par | 71 |
| | FAHRBRING, Jens | Par | 71 |
| | MARCHESANI, James | Par | 72 |
| | SENDEN, John | Par | 72 |
| | LAW, David | Par | 71 |
| | NEERGAARD-PETERSEN, Rasmus | Par | 72 |
| | SCHMIDT, Ben | Par | 71 |
| | GIBELLINI, James | Par | 72 |
| | VOKE, Nick | Par | 72 |
| 95 | JONES, Sam | +1 | 72 |
| | MEE, James | +1 | 72 |
| | HODGE, Tyler | +1 | 72 |
| | ALBERTSE, Louis | +1 | 72 |
| | ÅKESSON, Björn | +1 | 72 |
| | DOULL, Jordan | +1 | 72 |
| BAUTISTA, Austin | +1 | 73 | |
| | BARRON, Haydn | +1 | 72 |
| | SINNOTT, Todd | +1 | 73 |
| | BRERETON, Darcy | +1 | 73 |
| | BARKER, Lachlan | +1 | 73 |
| | PINEAU, Pierre | +1 | 73 |
| | CAMPBELL, Phoenix | +1 | 73 |
| | MCBRIDE, Kade | +1 | 72 |
| | YOUNGER, Josh | +1 | 72 |
| | HURLEY, Gary | +1 | 72 |
| | HUR, Inhoi | +1 | 72 |
| | OLESEN, Jacob Skov | +1 | 72 |
| | NIEMANN, Joaquin | +1 | 73 |
| 114 | PICKIN, Jye | +2 | 73 |
| | HART, Tim | +2 | 74 |
| | DAVIS, Cam | +2 | 73 |
| | JAGER, Matt | +2 | 74 |
| | PEREZ, Victor | +2 | 73 |
| | MILLAR, Matthew | +2 | 73 |
| | HALVORSEN, Andreas | +2 | 73 |
| | MOSCATEL, Joel | +2 | 74 |
| | RAMSAY, Richie | +2 | 74 |
| | LONARD, Peter | +2 | 73 |
| | SCRIVENER, Jason | +2 | 74 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | +2 | 74 |
| | CARTER, Jak | +2 | 74 |
| | RUTHERFORD, Jamie | +2 | 73 |
| 128 | CHARLES, Max | +3 | 75 |
| | WOOD, Tyler | +3 | 74 |
| | BRADY, Adam | +3 | 75 |
| | PARATORE, Renato | +3 | 74 |
| | BUCHANAN, Jack | +3 | 75 |
| | GREER, Joshua | +3 | 74 |
| | HAWKES, Simon | +3 | 74 |
| | MOUNTCASTLE, Kerry | +3 | 74 |
| | CABRERA BELLO, Rafa | +3 | 75 |
| | HARDING, Justin | +3 | 74 |
| | KIVIMETS, Bradley | +3 | 74 |
| | DOWLING, Billy (AM) | +3 | 75 |
| | CAMPBELL, Andrew | +3 | 74 |
| 141 | FERGUSON, Ben | +4 | 75 |
| | CASCIO, Samuel (AM) | +4 | 76 |
| | BRAZEL, Sam | +4 | 76 |
| | COLETTA, Brett | +4 | 76 |
| | PAUL, Yannik | +4 | 75 |
| | LIST, Danny | +4 | 75 |
| | FELTON, Jarryd | +4 | 76 |
| 148 | SANG, Hyunjun (AM) | +5 | 76 |
| 149 | CRAWFORD, Cory | +6 | 77 |
| | NADIMPALLI, Siddharth | +6 | 77 |
| | PROVERBS, Blake | +6 | 78 |
| 152 | MICHEL, Kyle | +7 | 79 |
| | DOBBELAAR, Louis | +7 | 78 |
| 154 | CRABTREE, Christopher | +8 | 80 |
| | BRUYERES, William | +8 | 80 |
| | MILLER, Michael | +8 | 79 |
Simon Bale
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