Battling an illness earlier this week, Lucas Herbert managed just nine holes of practice, leaving him unfamiliar with half the course prior to teeing off in Thursday’s first round at Maaden LIV Golf Virginia 2026.
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In addition, back problems have plagued him lately. Meanwhile, some bad habits have crept into his game, resulting in a frustrating stretch of results.
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Despite the odds stacked against him, Herbert went out and shot an 8-under 64 to take a two-stroke lead while also fueling his Ripper GC to a four-stroke advantage on the team leaderboard. It’s the first time the 30-year-old Australian has led after any round in his LIV Golf career.
“I don’t know that my expectations could have been any lower than what they were today,” said Herbert, adding “strangely, here I am sitting here in front of you with a two-shot lead after the first round.”
His expectations may be higher now as he seeks to build on his fast start in search of his first LIV Golf individual title. His four closest pursuers each have won at least one LIV Golf tournament, including Ripper teammate and Virginia resident Marc Leishman, along with Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia, Legion XIII’s Tyrrell Hatton and Torque GC’s Sebastián Muñoz, each of whom shot 66 at Trump National Washington D.C. on Thursday.
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Since he was essentially playing half the course blind, Herbert leaned on caddie Nick Pugh to manage his way around the course that sits on the edge of the Potomac River. After two early birdies, Herbert settled into the unfamiliar front nine with an eagle at the par-5 second. A six-hole stretch with five birdies allowed him to move atop the leaderboard.
“It’s a big disadvantage really to have not played the course before you head out there,” Herbert said. “It’s not something I would do very often, but in a way, it felt like maybe a little bit of a positive today because my caddie can give me some lines off tees.
“I can occasionally go a little rogue from them if I know the course and feel a little more comfortable left and right of those lines, whereas today I had to stick to those pretty strictly because I didn’t know where I was going.”
Hatton also was dealing with something unfamiliar – namely the new putter that replaced the one he’s used since 2024. With top-5 finishes in his last two worldwide starts, including his best-ever major result with a T3 at the Masters, the Englishman feels like the change might better allow him to convert those opportunities into wins.
“I’ve been leaving a lot of putts short,” Hatton said. “That’s obviously frustrating. This one comes off a little bit quicker … With it being the first round, you have that nervousness towards is it actually going to be OK? Thankfully, I hit a lot of good putts today.”
Muñoz has struggled for form lately after starting the season with a couple of top 10s. He’s hoping to get back to the kind of performer he was at the end of the 2025 season when he shot 59 en route to winning at Indianapolis in the regular-season finale.
“Come back to my senses that I don’t have to do anything extra,” Muñoz said. “Like me being me is good enough.” He brought his support team together earlier in the week and said it “kind of cleared my mind in a lot of things to give me the calm and confidence that I’m enjoying today.”
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As for Leishman, he’s not surprised to see two Ripper players high up on the leaderboard. The all-Australian team remains atop the season-long race after their two early wins and the Trump National course appears to fit their collective game.
“Courses that are more difficult, I think, suit us pretty well, particularly if they’re firm,” Leishman said. “… This is certainly going to get pretty firm over the weekend.”
