Herbert teed off in the first group on Friday of the 2023 Fortinet Australian PGA Championship as the official ambassador for Yellow Day, a colourful tribute to the late Jarrod Lyle designed to raise awareness and much-needed funds for Challenge to continue to help the families of children battling cancer.

The Leuk the Duck badge has been a permanent fixture on the Victorian’s golf cap ever since Lyle’s passing five years ago, yet a back injury forced Herbert to quit halfway through his second round of the 2022 championship at Royal Queensland.

One year on, after rounds of 66-68, Herbert is in a tie for fourth at 8-under and just four strokes off the lead held by Min Woo Lee (66).

As defending champion Cam Smith left Royal Queensland after a Friday 78 fighting back tears having missed the cut by nine strokes, Herbert was reflecting on the disappointment he felt in checking out early a year ago.

“I said to ‘Pughy’ (caddie Nick Pugh) walking up 18, I was like, ‘Geez, we’re in a much better place than we were this time last year’,” said Herbert, who will tee off with Curtis Luck and Spaniard Joel Moscatel at 10:54am AEST on Saturday.

“I think we were 2-over at that point as well. It wasn’t a nice feeling to be driving home even earlier than Friday afternoon last year.

“It’s never fun to deal with injuries and I was very frustrated Friday night sitting at home up in Noosa.

“It’s nice to sort of look back on that and see how far we’ve come and touch wood, very injury free and my body’s moving really nicely.”

Yellow Day ambassador leading the way 💛@lhgolf5 | #AusPGA pic.twitter.com/y3VuwOi2ee

— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) November 24, 2023

On the surface, the 6am tee time on Friday seemed to catch Herbert napping.

He dropped a shot at the short par-4 12th and then made double-bogey on 14 to be 3-over through his first five holes.

The reality was that the 27-year-old careened off the back edge after driving the green on 12 and, after missing the fairway on 14, failed to get up-and-down for bogey.

He cast that aside with a birdie at the par-5 15th and then played the front nine – his back nine – in 5-under 31 to sign off on 36 holes of golf with a share of the lead.

Lee, Scott and Lyras would all pass him by day’s end yet Herbert is content with the position he finds himself as he chases a maiden Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia title to go with his three DP World Tour wins and single PGA TOUR victory.

“There’s still a lot of golf to play, so definitely a good opportunity,” said Herbert, winner of the ISPS HANDA Championship in Japan in April.

“I’ve been in some good opportunities before and haven’t capitalised the way I wanted to.  At some point if I keep doing that, I’m going to capitalise on one of them.

“I know the way I play golf and when I do get a sniff of the lead, I’m pretty good at converting it.

“I know that if I give myself a sniff on Sunday enough times, it’ll happen.”