LIV GOLF VIRGINIA

May 10, 2026

Lucas Herbert

Trump National DC

Ripper GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Lucas Herbert, congratulations, individual champion Madden LIV Golf Virginia 2026.

LUCAS HERBERT: It's got a nice ring to it. Thank you.

Q. Yesterday we discussed how good it would feel to join your teammates. Now you have all four Rippers claiming to be individual champions on LIV. How did that walk up 18 feel?

LUCAS HERBERT: I think I did a pretty good job of not letting myself get ahead of the moment until that shot went on the green on 18 and I kind of knew I could have a sword fight and still win.

Yeah, it was, I think, probably more relief to begin with. I spent about 60-odd holes with the lead on my own. So it was nice to kind of just get to the finish line and have this one presented to me and achieve a goal that I've had for 2-1/2 years now since I joined the league.

Q. That point there with a couple holes left to play, there's a weather stoppage. Did that have any impact on whether it's momentum, your mindset? Did it give you a chance to exhale a bit, or how did you spend that time?

LUCAS HERBERT: It wasn't really a fun 20 minutes, 30 minutes. I said to Pughy at some point on the back nine, the hardest time, the hardest period of time for this entire week was the time between finishing the round on Friday and teeing it up today on Sunday.

I woke up at 12:30 this morning coughing -- like that guy. Thanks, Nick. Coughing just from being sick, and you just don't even get a second before you start thinking about what if Bryson does this or what if Sergio birdies the first two, and you start running through these scenarios in your head. It's not until you actually get on the golf course that you can actually do something about it.

It was the most stressful 48 hours was between the end of Friday's round and teeing it up today. Once I got on the course today, it felt a lot like -- it felt like I could actually do something about it. It was almost like, oh, cool, I've dealt with that now. I'm in the fun stuff. Now I get another half an hour weather delay where it's like I've got to deal with this again.

Will say it felt like the whole day was momentum switches. Sergio birdies the 1st. I make a run of good scores. Then we get to the 9th. Momentum goes back to Sergio, and he obviously birdies 10. It looks like he was going to tie the lead on 12. I make the putt and he misses. Momentum swings. I birdie on 13 and I keep going that way. I miss a short one on 14. I miss the par putt on 16. It was just momentum swings all day. It felt like that momentum swing was going to Sergio when the weather got called.

It was probably a good thing when I came in. As uncomfortable as it was, it would probably stem the flow of that momentum and just let me reset and regroup a little bit.

Q. Lucas, talking about that stretch from 9 to 11, what were you kind of telling yourself? How did you process things as your lead went from five to one stroke in a matter of 30 minutes? It could have easily unraveled after that if Sergio keeps the momentum going.

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, it was a bit of a combo of -- I didn't do a lot wrong on 9. I've missed the spot I'm trying to hit it by five yards. Actually a great shot. I just smashed it and hit it in the only spot.

Like if I hit it -- if I hit the same shot into 10 and I smash it by five yards, it's in the back rough and I might get up-and-down for par. You just can't do it there on 9. It's a great par-3 because it catches people doing what I did, hitting a great shot and it goes over and into that collection area at the back. It probably gets through the collection area into the rough most of the time, and you're in a lot of trouble.

I didn't feel like I did it -- I didn't do a lot wrong to make double. I could have made worse too once I chip it up and it rolls back down. I could have easily made a 6 or a 7. But I sort of walked off that green, had a bit of a laugh with Pughy, and just reminded myself like I'm still two in front. Despite that car crash of a hole, I'm still two in front.

The same thing, Sergio birdies 10, I thought it was a really okay up-and-down for me on 10 there. It was a horrible lie right of that green, and to get that up there and at least not let it be another two-shot swing. Then obviously on 12, just turn that momentum around. It was what I needed. I said to Pughy that was what I needed to do. I turned momentum around on him a couple times through the last 36 holes, and I was like, all right, got to do it again.

My guess is that sense too like winning golf tournaments is hard. If it was easy, it wouldn't be very gratifying. Yeah, this feels pretty good right now because it was so hard because I hit some poor shots and had to really grind it out and make some putts when I needed to.

Q. We talked about yesterday what it might mean -- how would you process a win. Now that you're holding the trophy right now, what are the emotions going through your mind? Obviously you get a chance to play the U.S. Open next month.

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I probably tried not to look too much at what this win would mean for me in terms of position on the standings or exemption for the U.S. Open or any of those sorts of things. I'm still not even sure if I'm in the PGA this week. I don't know where my World Ranking would get to or anything like that. I tried not to worry about that and sort of take care of my job as much as I could the last couple days.

This is the -- I think this is my seventh win. This is the best. The next six hours are the best six hours you ever get. This is now my seventh time I get to enjoy it. This is the fun bit.

Eventually in a few days time, I'm reset, and as my teammate says, find another mountain to climb. Right now I'm pretty keen on making sure I celebrate this one pretty hard. I've heard a lot of people in golf tell me you don't know when it's your last. Hopefully it's not my last. I'll be very unhappy if it is, but I'm going to celebrate like it might be.

Q. Lucas, as you mentioned, you've won six other times besides this, but this is definitely the best field you've ever beaten. Is this kind of a time after you're done celebrating to reset and maybe raise the expectations for the next part of your career and what you can do after a confidence builder like beating this elite field?

LUCAS HERBERT: I'm a few days away from being able to figure that one out. Look, it's pretty special. I feel like I've had a good week week when I've beaten Jon Rahm. I think this is my second time doing it. So I'm going to take that as a victory.

Yeah, there's a lot of very high quality players in this field. I've beaten a lot of high quality players in previous wins. I feel like right now is not the best time to ask me whether this is the best field I've beaten, but it's not the worst, I can tell you that, and I'm pretty proud of it.

Yeah, in a few days time I'll work out what the next goal is. Maybe I don't. Maybe it takes me a month. Maybe it takes me six months. I've been wanting to tick this one off for a long time. Yeah, to do it in the way that I did it, very, very satisfying.

Q. Can you talk about Pughy's role in the win? I know you didn't get a chance to play even the front nine until the tournament started. How much did you rely on him in terms of plotting out the golf course?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, I rely on him every week. This week even more given I haven't seen -- I walked the 1st with my father-in-law. I didn't actually play it. Funnily enough, hit a few chip shots from down where I was behind the 9th green waiting for him to make the turn. There were seven holes I didn't know where they were, and I hadn't played obviously the nine.

He's a pretty special human being. I think we gel really, really well as a pair. Things that he is really strong at personality-wise are probably my weaknesses and vice versa. He's a guy that I trust implicitly with everything.

This is as much -- he deserves this as much as I do. He works so hard. Every other player will tell me how hard they see Pughy working as well. It's not just me that notices. I'm really happy for him. I just watched a couple videos of him celebrating on the 18th green, as he said. He should celebrate this one pretty well tonight.

I hope I get a FaceTime call from him in the early hours of him in some sort of establishment, under the weather, telling people stories about many things that we've done before and, yeah, letting his beard hair and every other hair that he's got down.