World No. 43 Lucas Herbert will make his tournament debut at The Players Championship this week, and he arrived at TPC Sawgrass off a T-7 finish last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he posted the low round on Sunday with a 68.
The 26-year-old Australian told media he’s come a long way since this time last year, where he played in his first “regular” Tour event (that wasn’t a major or WGC event) at the Honda Classic and finished T-46. Just 10 starts – and one year – later, Herbert is a PGA Tour winner after his triumph in October at the Bermuda Championship. “I feel like I’ve probably come a long way mentally from last year around this time,” said Herbert, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour. “I think I’ve probably got the mentality sorted a little bit more and probably physically a little bit more. … I still think I’d like to be sitting here in two years’ time, in five years’ time, saying that I’ve come a long way since I played my first Players here in 2022, as well.” Herbert said he wasn’t surprised by his top 10 last week at Bay Hill, despite missing two cuts in two starts prior (Phoenix, Honda), and said the experience was a confidence booster: “To have low round of the day, to play the way I did, to obviously climb that leaderboard gives me a lot of self-confidence and it sort of just – I felt like it was probably nearly a bit of a next step in my golfing journey was to play some really high-level golf at a big quality event with a tough golf course and a good field.”