Benjamin

Hebert

The Frenchman was sharp off the tee today as he missed just three (of 14) fairways en route to splashing 13 greens in regulation. He did a good job from there to clean up any shots around the green, going 5-for-5 scrambling to maintain a clean card. Just how easy was it to see this round coming? Hebert arrived with missed cuts in six of his last eight starts on the European Tour and his Open Championship history consists of an MC (2008) and T41 (2019).

Back in 2014 the Frenchman won three times on the Challenge Tour for a second time and said, with meaning: “I owe this tour a lot but I never want to see it again.” He’s been as good as his word and for the first four years of his current tenancy at the top level he was remarkably consistent. In fact, he finished 64th three times in a row on the Race to Dubai and the next year he was 65th! He broke that run with a superb 2019 when he finished second three times on his way to 16th. He remains without a win, therefore, and the French media reveal that he is somewhat fretful about this fact. He is 6-for-7 in 2020 with a best of T4 in the season-opening Mauritius Open, followed by T18 in the Mexico Championship (his second WGC start) and T17 last time out in the Qatar Masters.

Hebert spent his early teenage years living on a French colonial island in the tropics. That was Tahiti, but Mauritius may be reminding him of those times and he certainly seems suited to the challenge. For 11 holes on Friday his progress was serene, as he pieced together seven pars and birdies at the second, seventh, ninth and tenth (at the first three of them they were his second par breakers on those holes this week). He slipped up at the 12th hole, but righted the card with a red number at the par-5 18th. The 32-year-old missed the cut in this event last year with laps of 72-73, but it was no sign of what was to come as he three times finished runner-up, each time via a play-off. The win remains elusive however, but this is another fine opportunity, even if he did drop from a pre-round share of the lead. He is two back of pace-setter Calum Hill.

With the morning wave complete, that’s a shot ahead of Thomas Detry, Matthieu Pavon, Antoine Rozner and South Africans Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Zander Lombard and Keith Horne. Hebert was 1-over thru 4 today after following pars at 10, 11 and 12 with a bogey at 13. He got back under the card with back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 but did his best work coming home. He boarded the birdie train with a gain at No. 2 and then ticked 4, 5, 7 and 9. Hebert has held two previous R1 leads on the European Tour, going on to finish T8 and T12. He missed the cut in this event last year although this is his debut at Heritage. The 32-year-old was runner-up at the Turkish Airlines Open three starts ago, a result which helped him finish 16th on the Race to Dubai.

A heart-breaking third play-off defeat for him this season, after the China and Scottish Opens. On the other hand, the Frenchman had said all week that he preferred this course to the other used by the tournament and the numbers prove it. He had three failures to breach the top 50 at Carya and now adds this result at Montgomerie Maxx Royal to the T18 he registered in 2015. He had cruised the front nine, ticking the second, fourth and eighth. On the back nine he dropped a 15’0" birdie look at the 13th to get within one of the lead, but couldn’t add another at the vulnerably short par-4 15th nor when tentative from 7’0" at the 16th. A wild tee shot into rough followed, but he responded with an iron to 10’0". Again he failed to take the chance. At 18 he needed birdie to make the play-off (and hope others struggled); it all came to pass courtesy of a good 8’0" conversion before a clumsy effort at the second time of asking.

The Frenchman had opened his week with rounds of 67 and 70 but really got it going at Montgomerie Maxx Royal today, posting nine red numbers. Five of those came in his first nine holes as he ticked 1, 2, 4, 8 and 9. Although he dropped a shot at 12, Hebert surrounded it with birdie-4s at 11 and 13 before picking up further strokes at 15 and 18. He said: “My iron shots are great, and putting works pretty well today. Yesterday was a bit frustrating because I had some good opportunities and missed a lot. Yeah, I just try to work on my short game I think is the key here, and then we’ll see.” Hebert came into the week ranked 21st on the Race to Dubai.

The Frenchman had an appalling record at Carya, never once making the top 50 in three tries, and admitted it after his Thursday lap. “I definitely prefer this course,” he said. “It’s a little bit more open.” His day was not without trouble as he made back-to-back bogeys at the sixth and seventh, but he ticked the first and third early in the day and then the ninth, 11th, 15th and 18th in a strong finish. He then revealed that the physios had been working on his neck and shoulder since last week – and also that he was reflecting on his first WGC start. “I was a little bit stressed,” he admitted. “It was hard so I was impressed the score of the leaders. I was struggling a bit with my game, but today was very good from the tee. I’m very happy about that and my putting was pretty good, also. Everything all right.” When he signed his card Hebert was two swings back of the clubhouse lead of Tom Lewis.

The Frenchman will make his fifth start in the tournament and possibly breathe a heavy sigh of relief that it is no longer played at Carya after he managed nothing better than three finishes outside the top 50 in 74-play fields. In contrast to that poor effort (or efforts) he was T18 back in 2015 when he played on this week’s Monty designed track, adding a Saturday 68 to three laps of 70. A two-time runner-up this season, both times in play-offs, he eventually finished T16 in the recent Open de France after contending all week and it might be a pointer of good form because it was by far his best performance at French golf’s HQ.

For a long while on Friday morning it looked as if the Frenchman was reverting to type at high speed. He had, after all, missed six cuts in a row at Le Golf National in Paris and despite opening his account with a birdie-3 at the tenth he soon added bogeys at the 12th and first with a double bogey-6 at the 15th in-between. It says much for the 32-year-old’s 2019 form and confidence that he reversed the flow. He ticked the par-5 third to set that in motion and then added back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh before completing his day at the ninth. He took lunch relieved to be out of the cold and also just three blows back of the pace-setter Kurt Kitayama. He can also take pride that in fighting for his 71 he bettered the average round two morning score (when he had completed at least) of 73.60. “It was very hard this morning,” he said. “Very cold at the start, and then very windy at the end.”

Since T42 on debut in 2010, he’s gone 0-for-6 in his home event but it was a different story this time. After a birdie/bogey trade at 2 and 5, the World No. 103 made his move with red circles at 6, 7, 10 and 11. After consolidating with four pars he made further progress after a birdie-bogey-birdie run over the final three holes. “I putted very well today,” he said. “I work on my putting since the start of the week. I have a private lesson with Mr. David Orr, who is like a big expert of putting. We changed some stuff and he works very well. So I’m pretty happy. At 17th, Hebert is the highest ranked Frenchman on the Race to Dubai. He added: “I feel good support from the French public. We have only one tournament a year, so it’s very important for us to represent this week.” He has a morning tee-time in round two.