Once asking questions, Ripper star Herbert is now delivering all the answers

ROCESTER, England – Since joining LIV Golf prior to the 2024 season, Lucas Herbert has been diligent about seeking advice from his two more decorated Ripper GC teammates, captain Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman. Asking questions, wanting feedback, all in hopes of raising his game to not only compete but beat the league’s top performers.

Smith and Leishman were happy to oblige their fellow Australian, who would quickly become a key contributor to the team’s success. They appreciated his enthusiasm and willingness to learn, to improve.

But then Smith began to notice a change.

“At the start of this year, maybe even towards the end of last year, those questions kind of stopped,” Smith said. “You could see him going out there and hitting shots – it’s like he took in the answers and the knowledge and then just went out there and made it himself. It’s been really cool to watch.”

Now, it’s Herbert who’s delivering the answers.

He broke through in early May with his first LIV Golf win, shooting 24 under to go wire-to-wire in Virginia – a victory that earned him a U.S. Open exemption. He followed that three weeks later with a top-10 finish in Korea.

At this month’s Open Championship – having earned an exemption via a runner-up finish earlier this year at the New Zealand Open – Herbert tied a men’s major record by shooting 62. He was the leader heading into the weekend and eventually finished T6, his best result in a major.

Then at last week’s LIV Golf United Kingdom presented by JCB, all that momentum, all that feedback he received from Smith and Leishman, all the equipment adjustments he’s made to fine-tune his bag came together in a tsunami of low scores. He set tournament and course records on Thursday with an opening bogey-free 11-under 61 and ended it with another bogey-free round, a 10-under 62 on Sunday for a record-winning score of 30 under, a wire-to-wire victory by six shots.

It’s the most dominant four-round performance in league history as he stared down two of the league’s biggest names in Tyrrell Hatton and Bryson DeChambeau, the threesome grouped together for the final 36 holes.

“Incredible golf,” said Hatton. “Just invincible,” added DeChambeau.

Statistically, Herbert’s four-day performance at JCB is among the best in all of professional golf in the last 40-plus years. He gained approximately 6.5 strokes per round – 25.9 strokes for the entire week. Data Golf reports that since 1983, when Strokes Gained data began to be collected, Herbert’s 25.9 total (24.6 adjusted) ranks among the top-20 event-level totals. For comparison, Tiger Woods recorded 29.95 Strokes Gained adjusted in his 2000 U.S. Open win by a record 15 strokes.

“I beat fourth place by four shots and Lucas beat top 5 by 16 shots,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t think that’s ever been done in golf history. It was quite amazing.”

More amazing, but certainly justified, is Herbert’s rise into the world’s top-50 ranked players. In early May of 2025, he was 324th in the world, but then he won the International Series Japan, moving him to 167th. Now with LIV Golf receiving ranking points this season and Herbert winning twice – which also gives him bonus points – he has moved to 46th in the world.

Smith doesn’t think that’s enough. “After the last couple of weeks, it’s hard to say he’s not inside the top 5, 10 in the world,” he said.

Would Herbert be on the same trajectory level had he not joined LIV Golf in 2024? Would he be experiencing the same success? Difficult to say. But Herbert himself acknowledges that being a part of the league’s all-Australian team and getting to tap into the knowledge possessed by a major champion in Smith and proven winner in Leishman has been invaluable.

“I’ve learned so much off these two who sit on either side of me,” Herbert said during Sunday’s post-round team press conference. “I’ve had an absolute blessing having been invited to join Ripper GC and be a part of this team. I’ve done everything I can to absolutely soak in everything these two boys have offered up. It’s been awesome.

“As Cam said, I’ve tried a lot of stuff the last couple of years, and they’ve been sort of good detectives as to whether I’m barking up the wrong tree or not. I’ve benefitted from it so much. I’m so grateful to be in this position, sit with these boys, being able to learn off them every week. I’m very aware of how lucky I’ve been to get in this position.”

But it’s not just the feedback Herbert gets from his teammates. Being able to process it correctly is just as important. As Leishman points out, Herbert has the ability to take what they say and apply and adjust to his own game instead of simply trying to duplicate it.

“Herby is very good at ticking all the boxes,” Leishman said. “He’s worked really hard on his equipment over the last two years. He’s done a really good job with that. He’s got a great lineup in the bag.

“The way he goes about things, the way he prepares, he just ticks all the boxes. That’s what you have to do. He ticks Lucas Herbert’s boxes, not mine or not Cam’s … He does what works for him. Obviously, his results have spoken for themselves this year with two wins and a chance to win The Open Championship and chances to win other events out here.”

With his UK win, Herbert joins DeChambeau and reigning two-time Individual Champion and current points leader Jon Rahm as two-time individual winners this season. He’s now third in the points race as the league enters the final stretch of 2026.

At 30 years old, he’s now entering the prime of his career. It’s a pretty special place to be – just as shooting 30 under was a pretty special performance for those lucky enough to witness it.

The scary part? Herbert’s best is yet to come.

“With the confidence he has at the moment,” Smith said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he ticks off another one or two [wins] before the end of the year.”