Aussie Lucas Herbert used his experience to produce clutch shots at Mount Juliet Estates, won the Irish Open Sunday and put himself in the 2021 Open Championship.
Herbert came from behind to win his first European Tour event at the 2020 Dubai Desert Classic but last week he went wire-to-wire for win number two.
He was challenged down the stretch by American Johannes Veerman but Herbert made an incredible sand save from the front bunker at the par four 16th from 100 feet away while Veerman took bogey from a bunker back of the green. Herbert lost control of his tee shots on the back nine but used some great scrambling to preserve his lead.
His closing 68 got him to 19-under, three clear of Rikard Karlbert and four better than Veerman, who bogeyed two of his final three holes to drop back to 15-under to finish solo third.
Rory McIlroy, biggest name in the field, had a week to forget with rounds of 72-67-73-74. He finished two-under and tied for 59th. Rory had seven bogeys and three doubles for the week as he heads to this week’s Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick.
Herbert had fallen out of the top 200 in the World Rankings when he won in Dubai but he will now hit a new career high, sitting just outside the top 50, and he revealed that when he was playing this event in 2019, he was not sure if a life as a professional golfer was for him.
“I just really wasn’t enjoying my life on the road and I think at the end of that week I was pretty much questioning whether this was the career that I wanted to do,” he said. “I’d never played full time on Tour with a full Tour card and been away from home so much as well. I think that was the first case of reality and I don’t know that I really enjoyed it that much at the time. There was a lot of soul searching going on. The people around me that were the closest, that were looking after me the most, I wasn’t treating them the way I probably should have. It was just a big soul search after the following week, the Scottish Open and flew home. I had to do a lot of thinking and that Irish Open was probably the low point. For it to come full circle now and be holding this trophy, it’s really special.”
He added: “Looking at the names on that trophy, it’s pretty special, to add my name to that list is something that nobody can take away from me now and it’s very, very satisfying to do it. I won in Dubai last year and how much that benefitted me winning the event rather than a top five or a top three. A win is so much more than a second place so I was mentally trying to keep that at the forefront of my mind today – a win is a lot bigger than just a good finish and I was proud to finish the way I did.”
Jin Young Ko Bounches Back, Wins Volunteers Of America:
Former World No. 1 Jin Young Ko didn’t waste any time getting back into the winner’s circle.
Last Thursday she sent a message to the rest of the field at the LPGA Tour’s Volunteers of America championship at the Old American Golf Club in The Colony outside Dallas with an opening 63, followed it up with round of 70 and 66 then closed the deal late Sunday with a 69 that gave her a one-shot victory over Finland’s Matilda Castren.
The rain-plagued event wrapped up as darkness was setting in on Sunday.
Castren got within a shot of Ko after Ko missed an eight-footer for birdie at the 71st hole and Castren made hers from four feet. But a par at the final hole was all the former No. 1 needed to wrap up the win.
It was the first win for Ko this year and it was one week after she lost the No. 1 ranking to Nelly Korda, who supplanted Ko by winning the Women’s PGA Championship.
Ko had failed to finish in the top 10 in four of her previous five starts on the LPGA Tour. But not far from her American home in the Dallas area, she thrived. She finished at 16-under 268 for her eighth career LPGA victory. She remains at No. 2 in the world.
“I was thinking I had a lot of pressure with the No. 1 ranking,” Ko said. “But I made it this week. I’m very happy.”
Staked to a one-shot lead, Ko opened with three birdies in four holes to widen her lead. Castren, who won her first LPGA Tour title three weeks ago at Lake Merced, kept her in her sights with a pair of birdies before making the turn.
“I was thinking I couldn’t win this week because like Matilda, she played really well today and yesterday, too,” Ko said. “It’s like I want to focus on my game on the course and then I tried to not think about Matilda, how she play, hit driver or whatever. And it was tough. But yeah, she’s good player.”
