LIV GOLF VIRGINIA

May 8, 2026

Lucas Herbert

Trump National DC

Ripper GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Lucas, welcome back to the Media Center. 9-under today. How did you spend last night getting ready for round 2, and any plans to replicate that for tomorrow?

LUCAS HERBERT: Nothing special. I think I hit about 10 balls on the range, just tweaking a little alignment thing that I was kind of feeling. Yeah, pretty much relaxed and went back, got some dinner.

My wife's family is here this week, so spending some time with them. It was kind of good to get away from the fact that I was sitting on a two-shot lead there and think about something else for a while. I think we might be doing something pretty similar the way it worked out overnight.

Q. Athletes sometimes talk about being in the zone or when they're running hot. You had a stretch there middle of the round there, I think birdied 6 out of 7 holes. Is there a different type of feeling when you're on that type of run, or how do you describe that for folks that maybe aren't out there doing it themselves?

LUCAS HERBERT: I don't know if there's a way that I can describe this that's not going to sound super arrogant. Just things started coming to me easily. The shots that you would see into greens happened and worked the way that you saw them, and putts that you would read to break a certain way just did exactly what you kind of thought. Maybe even at times you'd hit a bad shot and you'd have judged it wrong and the bad shot now becomes good.

It was kind of one of those days, probably 36 holes, two of those days, of things that probably just come easy in some respects. To be honest, I probably tried to enjoy it a little bit out there because I was able to in the moment see that that was happening and kind of just be able to sit back and appreciate it a little bit and understand this is pretty not normal. You don't know how many times as a golfer you're going to get to experience that kind of feeling.

It was a pretty special feeling to experience out there. I would love to get the opportunity to do it again.

Q. On other Tours when you're the last guy in, you have a long time to wait before your tee time on Saturday and Sunday. Here everybody is going out at once. What is your perspective on that? Is one way better? Do you prefer one way over the other? Would you like to know what your competitors are doing, or are you happy going off at once simultaneously?

LUCAS HERBERT: I think there's positives and negatives of both. If you look to the majors, you look to The Open, you get a tee time that's 3:00 in the afternoon, you might actually watch a lot of golf in the morning and see how the course is playing. That can be a positive, but it can also be a negative. It might be blowing 5 miles an hour in the morning, but by the time you get there, it's blowing 20, and the hole plays completely different.

In and of itself there, it's a positive and a negative. I think there's times where guys make the cut on the number, get out early, fresh conditions, not a lot of wind, brand new greens, can shoot a number and get their way up the leaderboard. It feels like you're playing a different golf course in the afternoon.

My position right now, I'm pretty happy with everyone playing in the same conditions as me tomorrow afternoon when we tee off.

I don't think there's a better or worse way. I just think they have different -- they have different upsides and downsides. I think as a product for the league it's great having everyone tee off at the same time.

Our big -- one of our big things that we love doing is having younger generation, and especially the kids coming in. I don't have any kids, but I can appreciate it's pretty hard to drag a 4 or 5-year-old around for eight hours to watch the three players they want to watch if it's a traditional tee time, sort of the way it's staggered on a weekend.

I think with the way LIV works with a shotgun start, everyone playing at the same time, that makes it a little easier and maybe a little more accessible for parents bringing their younger kids out to see some of their idols play golf.

I'm not sure what time we're off tomorrow, but I'll try to kill some time in the morning. I kicked the footy the last two days, so I might be kicking the footy again.

Q. Lucas, do you remember the last time you had a six-shot lead after 36 holes?

LUCAS HERBERT: I don't think I've ever had a six-shot lead after 36 holes. You're in unchartered territory here. Have you got any advice for me?

Q. I was going to ask you how you handle such a big lead like that.

LUCAS HERBERT: I don't know. I think I will probably lean into the fact that the last two days -- I don't know whether you heard me say on 18. It was the least I'd ever been called up on a leaderboard, a scoreboard. I lost track of what score I was on most of the day.

I came into the week with very, very low expectations, so I think I'm probably going to try and stick to that. I want to go out there tomorrow, and I want to make some golf swings that I don't think I've been able to make for 12 months. I want to make some progress and hit some shots, some better quality shots than I've been hitting for 12 months. I want to do a better job of committing to what I want to do and not stepping away from the moment for the next 36 holes.

I think, if I do those, I'll walk away from the week really, really satisfied whether I am holding a trophy or not.

Q. You talked about being in the zone. How does this round compare to the 61 you shot?

LUCAS HERBERT: I think late in the round I was kind of mentally maybe making some comparisons as to this probably feels -- you get a sense that it's playing pretty hard out there even though it felt pretty easy for me. You get the sense, you're watching other guys play, and you can see it's blowing pretty good and it was gusting quite a lot.

The wind would switch just slightly quite a bit out there, and it made it really, really difficult. So you do get that sense that you know how hard it's playing. I think that was probably pretty similar to Mexico last year. I played really, really good golf in some pretty tough conditions.

I'm going to say this golf course is probably harder than Mexico City was playing at the time. It's tough to compare them. I'm sat here 30 minutes removed from that round, so it's pretty easy for me to say right now I'm more proud of this than I am Mexico City. But as time goes on, I'll get a better appreciation for how I've played the last two days.

Q. You've got your family here this week. How often do they get a chance to see you in action?

LUCAS HERBERT: Not a huge amount. Obviously LIV being a global tour, we travel quite a bit. It's my wife Erica's family is out here with us this week. They don't make massive treks across the globe to come watch. So we play an event in the U.S., they like to come out, and I love having them out here. Erica and I both love when they come out, and we get some good quality time together.

My father-in-law Joe played in the Pro-Am with me on Wednesday, which was a really cool experience. He probably didn't play the way he would have liked, but we really enjoyed it out there. Had a great group and playing a really high quality golf course, I think is a great bonding moment for us.

It's really nice to have them here this week. Probably go have dinner with them again tonight and have the same banter that we always have whether we're at a golf tournament or not.

Q. The Rippers look like they have fun on the golf course. You guys all know each other, you love each other. Beware of the sick golfer. You weren't feeling good earlier this week. Does that work into what's going on right now, being 17-under par?

LUCAS HERBERT: I definitely think the Rippers have a lot of fun. You nailed it right on the head there. I actually almost fist pumped in my room last night when I saw the draw and saw I was playing with Leish. You never really quite know who's going to fall into the group. When I saw it was Leish, I knew I was going to have a fun day today.

No idea that I was going to play well, but I knew I'd have a good day because we get along great, caddies get along great, and we knew it was going to be fun. That's played a massive role into how I played today.

One of the things that's so enjoyable with LIV -- and I think 12 other teams probably look pretty jealously at Ripper as to how well we get along, how much fun we have, and the flow and effect that has into the way we play.