Herbert's Timely Boost for AAC Participants

Bermuda: With the region’s finest golfing prospects putting the finishing touches to their preparations for this week’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), Australian Lucas Herbert has provided a timely boost by joining the elite list of PGA Tour winners.

Playing in only his third tournament as a full member of the PGA Tour, the 25-year-old from Bendigo in central Victoria held off the challenges of American Patrick Reed and New Zealander Danny Lee to win the Butterfield Bermuda Championship by one shot.

“It opens up so many doors for me. It’s so exciting playing being able to play out here and pick a schedule,” said Herbert, a three-time AAC contestant. He tied for fourth at China’s Nanshan International Golf Club in 2013, was joint eighth at Royal Melbourne in 2014 and shared 12th place at Hong Kong’s Clearwater Bay in 2015.

With his victory at Bermuda’s Port Royal Golf Club, Herbert will soar into the top-50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, earning him starting spots in the 2022 Major championships as well as a two-year exemption to the PGA Tour.

“The next 12 months are going to be really cool,” said Herbert, who follows fellow-Australians Cameron Smith and Cam Davis, Japanese Hideki Matsuyama and Satoshi Kodaira, Koreans Kim Si-woo and KH Lee and Chinese-Taipei’s CT Pan as AAC participants to win on the PGA Tour.

Herbert added: “I’ve never played Augusta, so being able to play the Masters is going to be pretty cool. Getting to play in a few of these events that I’ve watched growing up on TV, it’s just going to be a cool experience.

“No matter how I play, it’s just going to be phenomenal to play in those tournaments. It’s going to be lots of fun.

“The next few days we’ll sit back and think and celebrate and reset some plans going forward as to what our goals are going to be and how we want to play in some of these awesome tournaments that we’re going to get into.”

Herbert secured his PGA Tour card at the Korn Ferry Championships in August. He had moved to Florida from Europe, where he won twice on the European Tour over the past 18 months.

He is the first Australian male player since Adam Scott in 2008 to win individual titles on both the European Tour and PGA Tour in the same year having won the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in July.