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A birdie at the 72nd hole has secured Lucas Herbert promotion to the PGA Tour, finishing tied for fourth in the first event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho.
After Brett Drewitt earned one of 25 PGA Tour cards awarded after the end of the regular season last week, Herbert joined the Korn Ferry Tour for a three-event finals series where 25 additional cards are up for grabs.
Although he was cautious not to celebrate too soon, Herbert’s thrilling finish and two players ahead of him having already secured PGA Tour cards means he will spend next year plying his trade primarily on the PGA Tour.
Beginning the final round in a share of 12th, Herbert had four birdies and two bogeys in a front nine of 2-under 34, unable to get up-and-down at the par-4 10th to fall to 13-under for the tournament.
Needing a late surge to put himself in the frame for a PGA Tour card, the 25-year-old birdied the par-3 13th, sparking a run that included birdies at 15 and 16 and a brilliant approach into 18, his birdie putt from five feet curling in on the right edge to reach 17-under.
“I am just thrilled,” said Herbert, who played six regular-season PGA Tour events this year with a best finish a tie for 18th at The Memorial Tournament.
“It’s been a really good season to learn a lot about PGA Tour golf.
“Twelve months ago, standing in this position, I wasn’t ready to play out on the PGA Tour.
“This time around I think I’m a lot better prepared to be able to go out there and hopefully play really nicely next year and not have to be back here at the Korn Ferry Finals.
“It’s what you dream of as a kid. You want to play on the PGA Tour. At times it has felt so far away and right now it feels so close.”
The realisation of Herbert’s PGA Tour dream came just a day after what would have been Jarrod Lyle’s 40th birthday, Herbert a Challenge ambassador and sporting his Leuk the Duck headcover at Hillcrest Country Club.
With two finals events remaining Aaron Baddeley (71) will need to post a high finish after he ended week one of the finals in a tie for 48th, West Australian Curtis Luck (76) the only other Aussie to make the cut in a share of 79th.
The pursuit of an LPGA Tour card also commenced over the weekend with amateur Grace Kim leading the way of the four Aussies to progress from Stage 1 of Qualifying School in California.
Kim’s closing 5-under 67 was her best round of the tournament to climb into a tie for 10th at 9-under par, Emily Mahar (73), Kirsty Hodgkins (71) and Stephanie Bunque (71) also inside the top 95 who advance to Stage II in Florida in October.
Although safely secure on the Champions Tour Rod Pampling can now start planning for a 2022 season that will start in Hawaii after taking out the Boeing Classic in Washington.
Breaking a Champions Tour winless drought stretching back to Rodger Davis’s Toshiba Senior Classic victory in 2003, Pampling used a closing round of 6-under 66 to assume the lead in the clubhouse and then watched on as his nearest challengers failed to reach his winning mark of 12-under par.
“You look at all the Hall of Famers are just phenomenal out here. There’s so many and they still play really good golf,” said Pampling, who qualifies for the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai reserved only for Tour winners.
“People think they don’t, but I’ll tell you what, they play so good. It’s just not quite as far off the tee anymore, but everything else is still really good.
“To get a win you’ve got to play good and thankfully I did today.
“We got a little bit lucky at the end, but sometimes that’s what you need.”
Elsewhere this week Blake Windred moved closer to a European Tour card with a tie for 10th at the Challenge Tour’s Sydbank Esbjerg Challenge, Maverick Antcliff was the best of the Aussies in a tie for 29th at the D+D Real Czech Masters and Minjee Lee and Stephanie Kyriacou both saw the top of the leaderboard before finishing fifth and 13th respectively at the AIG Women’s Open.
Results
Korn Ferry Tour
Albertsons Boise Open
Hillcrest Country Club, Boise, Idaho
Winner Greyson Sigg 65-70-65-65—265
T4 Lucas Herbert 69-64-68-66—267
T48 Aaron Baddeley 71-68-66-71—276
T69 Danny Lee 71-68-69-71—279
T79 Curtis Luck 70-69-70-76—285
MC Brett Drewitt 72-69—141
MC Greg Chalmers 69-72—141
WD Rhein Gibson 73-48
Champions Tour
Boeing Classic
TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge, Snoqualmie, Washington
Winner Rod Pampling 68-70-66—204 $US315,000
T7 Steven Alker 67-73-67—207 $64,050
T26 David McKenzie 71-70-71—212 $16,380
T56 Robert Allenby 78-69-70—217 $4,200
61 John Senden 71-74-73—218 $3,570
T67 Stephen Leaney 72-74-76—222 $2,058
AIG Women’s Open
Winner Anna Nordqvist 71-71-65-69—276 $US870,000
T5 Minjee Lee 71-69-72-66—278 $219,787
T13 Stephanie Kyriacou 72-70-71-69—282 $85,328
T29 Lydia Ko 72-71-72-71—286 $44,992
T34 Su Oh 71-69-71-76—287 $36,442
T48 Hannah Green 73-70-71-76—290 $21,491
MC Whitney Hillier 73-74—147
MC Katherine Kirk 72-78—150
MC Sarah Kemp 78-76—154
MC Kirsten Rudgeley (a) 86-76—162
European Tour
D+D Real Czech Masters
Albatross Golf Resort, Prague, Czech Republic
Winner Johannes Veerman 71-66-68-68—273 €149,920
T29 Maverick Antcliff 67-70-74-72—283 €8,665
T29 Ryan Fox 70-72-70-71—283 €8,665
T47 Jake McLeod 73-69-72-73—287 €5,117
T58 Josh Geary 73-71-73-73—290 €3,671
WD Deyen Lawson 71-72-77—220 €2,308
MC Bryden Macpherson 72-75—147
Japan Golf Tour
Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup
The North Country Golf Club, Hokkaido
Winner Kazuki Higa 68-65-67-68—268 ¥24m
T59 Scott Strange 66-72-74-81—293 ¥278,400
MC Andrew Evans 74-68—142
MC Todd Sinnott 70-74—144
MC Anthony Quayle 73-71—144
MC David Bransdon 70-74—144
MC Dylan Perry 75-70—145
Challenge Tour
Sydbank Esbjerg Challenge
Esbjerg Golfklub, Esbjerg, Denmark
Winner Espen Kofstad 68-70-68-67—273 €32,000
T10 Blake Windred 69-74-67-69—279 €3,840
Legends Tour
Irish Legends Presented by The McGinley Foundation
Rosapenna Hotel and Golf Resort, Ireland
Winner Thomas Bjorn 67-66-65—198 €45,000
T18 Peter Fowler 72-70-67—209 €4,057
T31 Michael Long 67-74-72—213 €2,185
LPGA and Symetra Tour Qualifying Stage I
Rancho Mirage, California
Top 95 and ties advance to Stage II
Winner Gina Kim (a) 71-69-66-67—273
T4 Amelia Garvey 68-69-67-72—276
T10 Grace Kim (a) 73-68-71-67—279
T22 Emily Mahar (a) 67-69-74-73—283
T38 Kirsty Hodgkins (a) 67-75-73-71—286
T75 Stephanie Bunque 74-70-75-71—290
T96 Munchin Keh 72-73-72-75—292
T124 Julianne Alvarez 74-72-72-77—295
MC Laura Hoskin 74-73-73—220
MC Jess Whitting 76-74-72—222
MC Wenyung Keh 76-71-76—223
MC Doey Choi 79-72-76—227
