LIV GOLF VIRGINIA

May 9, 2026

Lucas Herbert

Trump National DC

Ripper GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Lucas, welcome back. 4-under 68. You look ahead to Sunday as the leader. You had two incredible rounds to start the tournament. After today's performance, how do you feel about where you're sitting with one round to go?

LUCAS HERBERT: I think, if you'd given me a three-shot lead going into Sunday at the start of the week, I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. You've got to put that in context, I think. Today I found it a little trickier today, but I was probably always going to after the first two rounds.

Really happy with the position I'm in. Sort of looking forward to just regrouping tonight and getting after it tomorrow.

Q. As I'm sure you know, there were some players that went quite low today. You've got a pack chasing you. Do you find yourself throughout today's round peeking at the leaderboard any more than normal, or do you keep your head down, or are you just focused on your game?

LUCAS HERBERT: A little bit, probably out of general interest. Like the way Sergio started, it was probably always going to be us two fighting it out at the top there, going deep into the round.

I saw Josele had an unbelievable round, and obviously I was keeping tabs on our boys, Leish and Cam and Elvis too. So probably more of a general interest there rather than -- I think I was probably at a point of the tournament where I felt like, if I took care of everything that I needed to, then I wouldn't really have to worry about the guys back there too much.

That's probably just an element of wanting to make sure we got far enough ahead that we didn't bring too many guys back into it tomorrow. Like you said, some guys did play well today.

Q. Lucas, obviously Sergio's three shots behind, but the next pursuers are eight shots back. Do you kind of feel like, unless things go really quirky, it's going to be you and Sergio really tomorrow?

LUCAS HERBERT: I mean, we saw this in Adelaide with Jon and Bryson. We thought it was going to be a two-horse race. So I don't want to rule anyone out, and I don't want to turn into a match play situation when it's still a stroke play event.

I think the reality is it's very much in mine and Sergio's hands. If we play great, the other guys are going to struggle to catch us. If we don't play great, we open the door for them.

It's a nice position to be in, not having too many guys to worry about, but we're playing 72 holes now. I actually had a text from one of my friends congratulating me on the win and then realizing we're playing 72 holes now, which was a little disheartening. Hopefully I get the same text again tomorrow.

Q. Do you feel proud of how you've managed this round mentally knowing that, as Alan mentioned, all these guys were kind of going low. I'm sure you saw all the numbers and everything like that, but yet other than the one bogey, you were still kind of unflappable there at least and maintained the lead all the way throughout.

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I didn't feel like I did a lot wrong the last 12 holes, from 7 onwards. I didn't feel like I did a lot wrong. It's golf, and the golf course is tough, and the greens are firming up, and the rough's thick, and it doesn't take much to go from hitting shots in there to six feet and feeling like the game's easy to getting an up-and-down from ball washers and underneath prams and out of TV towers to try to get yourself out of trouble.

Yeah, I was proud of the way that Serge was giving me a good run there, and I didn't take a step back. It felt good to be honest. I felt like I was getting primetime Sergio there coming up against me. It was pretty fun having that battle.

Q. One last question from me. You've been knocking on the door several times out here. What would a win tomorrow on LIV Golf mean? Obviously you've got a lot of tangible things at play, including U.S. Open. But what would it be like knowing this is your Tour and you'd finally get a win?

LUCAS HERBERT: I'm not really sure how it would feel, but I've won on every other Tour that I've played on, I think. It's something that I'd like to tick off. I've watched my three teammates win over the past four years, and I want to join that list as well.

So, yeah, caught myself sneaking a look at the trophy earlier, and I was like that would be cool. Then had to quickly rein that one back in. There's still a lot of golf to go.

I'm really proud to play out here on LIV, and I want to have one of those LIV Golf trophies in my cabinet because this Tour's meant so much. It's felt like a big family out here. We've been in this together through all the highs and all the lows. I want to feel like my name's on that winners list at some point, and this is a really good opportunity to do that.

Q. Lucas, incredible performance the last three days. I know your in-laws are in town and you're getting to spend time with them. Away from the golf course, I know you had some -- I guess a spot of the flu earlier in the week. Do you feel like your game, because of the parents, your parents and the in-laws here, is it peaking at the right time? A lot of golfers say there's certain times of the year they play really great and there's other times of the year they don't. Do you feel like things are all coming in the right direction now?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah. I'm leading by three, so yeah, I'd say it's peaking.

Q. What's the best part of your game right now?

LUCAS HERBERT: The first two days, I drove it great. I think that's probably the key to my game. When I drive it great, that's when I can really, really score well. If you look at my form -- throughout my career, when I've played poorly, I've driven it poorly. So, yeah, I was driving it really good the first couple days.

I maybe struggled a little bit today, and I sort of -- I think I know why. I've just got a couple of things to tweak and work on, and I think it will be fine tomorrow.

This course is pretty demanding too off the tee. There's not a lot of holes where you can belly out. You've got water down the one side and bunkers down the other side, or some variety of that on most holes.

Yeah, if I can drive it great tomorrow, I'll be happy, and in-laws will be happy too.

Q. Lucas, how hard is it to play with a six-shot lead?

LUCAS HERBERT: It's a little faulty there on the 18th green. I empathize with, whether it's a marathon runner who tries to set out hard and set the pace, or my dad was big into bike riding growing up, so we watched the Tour de France a lot. You often see two or three guys make a break away from the peloton and try and do it on their own. It feels like -- it's tough. It feels like there's nowhere to go. Everyone's chasing you, and you've only got yourself to beat out there.

It's not impossible, but it's just really tough to stay focused on that the entire time. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough trying to win wire to wire. I've done it a couple of times. Those weeks just drain you.

It's really hard every night going to dinner, going to bed, trying to get some sleep with the lead knowing all your friends and family back home, most of the golfing world have got their eyes on you, any potential opinion they could have on you for not winning.

It's brutal. It probably makes those wins really satisfying too. One of my most satisfying wins was the 2021 Irish Open, winning wire to wire there. That was one that felt really, really hard, and that was very satisfying at the end of the week to get that done.

Q. You were in those right trees early at the Irish Open there and you got through it. Can you just talk me through real quick that filthy up-and-down on 12 that you made for birdie?

LUCAS HERBERT: I don't want to have to hit that one again. I think Pughy sort of said to me, good shot, but we shouldn't have been there in the first place. That was a terrible shot today.

Sergio kind of hit a similar one on 17, those flop shots out of the rough. He says his is easy, I don't know. Yeah, it was a very, very tough shot. I saw a video of it quickly on the way here, and the swing it took for it to land exactly where I needed it to was very satisfying.

I think at that point of the round too, I think Serge went 7-under through 12 at that point. It was pushing me pretty hard, so I wanted to make sure I was sort of trying to keep him -- make him earn it. I didn't want to give the lead back to him too quickly.

That one, I felt pretty special when I made the putt. I think that shot meant nothing if I missed the putt. I was pretty happy to knock that one in.