Lucas Herbert opens up on exit, Asia-Pacific Amateur stuns golf world, Q-School update

So far, Lucas Herbert is the lone Australian player to confirm his departure from LIV Golf as deadlines for signatures to play in a 2.0 version arrive.

As Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Elvis Smylie continue to consider their futures, Herbert has opened up about his own decision to jump ship.

Speaking on the Tee It Up podcast, Herbert, who will make his next start at the NSW Open when the PGA Tour of Australasia resumes next week, Herbert said he has “no regrets” about joining LIV in the first place.

“I feel I have been incredibly lucky to get the opportunities I have. To spend so much time around Cam and Leish, Jonesy (Matt Jones) and Elvis, as wellm” he said.

“To be able to learn so much from those guys, create a really cool environment that we had, for the best part of three years. I just feel incredibly fortunate to have had that opportunity.”

Speaking about his decision to leave, he said that seriously contending at a major — which LIV Golf has desperately wanted its players to do while contractually forced to where team uniforms — worked against the rebel league by sparking an epiphany inside him.

“I looked back at leading, being in contention at The Open having the week I did there, and that was incredible,” Herbert, who won two LIV events in 2026, said.

“That was the highlight of my year and that was the thing I loved most.

“That felt like a bit of a coming of age … and sort of put the fire in the belly that, ‘This is where I want to be’.

“I’m not super caught up in how much money I play for … but genuinely for me I want to see my game improve, I want to give myself the best chance to play in majors, to compete in majors.”

Herbert said that given the PGA Tour is still imposing 12-month bans on anyone who features in a LIV Golf event, it meant his only options was to re-join the DP World Tour or stay with LIV.

As LIV 2.0’s plans started to take shape, he said there was only one avenue left.

“LIV was going to be from what it sounds like 10 tournaments, they were telling us there is going to be potentially more events to play outside of those as extra playing opportunities,” he said.

“For me 10 events is not enough to build a season around.”

Herbert acknowledged, however, that there could be discontent on the DP World Tour next year as it welcomes back LIV players like Sergio Garcia — something which Eddie Pepperrell wrote strongly on recently.

“I can really empathise with both sides. You know, with people’s frustrations about players being given a pathway back. Frustration with guys who are potentially losing spots in tournaments or losing status,” Herbert said.

“So, it’s gonna be a really strange and interesting next 12 months until it all kind of sorts itself out again and guys kind of find their feet of where they’re going to play their golf.

“So, yeah, I’d love to give you more, but I don’t really know.”

First though, Herbert will set himself for the Australian summer of golf, where he will contest the NSW Open, Australian PGA, Australian Open and Cathedral Invitational.

SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S A CHANCE

Sometimes likened to a job interview, Qualifying School in golf is, in actuality, significantly more sadistic … and expensive.

Offering the chance to earn a card on Tour the following year, Q School inspired American sportswriter John Feinstein to write a book about it, and call it ‘Golf’s Fifth Major’.

In that publication, Steve Pate told Feinstein: “When Tour players get together, they don’t tell stories about the majors … they tell stories about Q School.”

A selection of Australians now have their own stories to tell at the conclusion of the second stage of DP World Tour Q School over the weekend.

Anthony Quayle had the smoothest week, when he emerged on top of his site in Gerona at 18-under to advance to the final stage, which starts this Friday in Spain and is played over a gruelling SIX rounds.

Those stress filled 108 holes played by 156 players, with just 15 cards on offer, are where Sydney’s Kevin Yuan will also play for a job.

The Australian contingent grew to three on Monday when Jack Buchanan emerged successful from a playoff between six players for four spots.

Fellow Aussie Tour winners Austin Baustista and Declan O’Donovan left with hard luck stories missing out by one and two shots respectively.

RARE HISTORY AS AUSSIES, KIWI SITE STUN WORLD GOLF

He will never be the best known sporting entity with the name Fifa, but Pongsapak Laopakdee — nicknamed by his golf professional father after the football association — is certainly making his mark.

The winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last year in Dubai, Laopakdee earnt starts at The Masters and The Open. This year, he returned to the region’s biggest amateur event chasing the same spoils.

Played at Te Arai Links on New Zealand’s North Island in winds that likely shifted the balance of the slightly-built Thai, Laopakdee authored a final round 70 to pip home hope Zack Swanick and enter rarefied air.

The 21-year-old became only the second player to win the event back-to-back alongside Masters Champion Hideki Matsuyama.

“I feel like I’m more proud of myself this year because I never stopped believing in myself, even though I have a tough year,” Laopakdee said.

“I just keep telling myself that I’ve still got it. There was a demon in me said that said I don’t have it anymore but there was still a big part of me that still believes in myself.”

Meanwhile, after controversy surrounded the make-up of the eight Australians in the field, six players made the cut and four finished in the top 20.

Topped by third placed Kayun Mudadana, who was perfectly at home in windy conditions as a member of New South Wales Golf Club, Australia’s young player stocks look strong moving forward. The trajectory bodes well for 2028, when the tournament heads for Mudadana’s home club in 2028.

Fellow Aussie Harry Takis, the top ranked player in the field, finished tied-sixth, while Jonty Lunson, who was awarded a last-minute invite by tournament organisers, made the most of his chance.

The laid back Tasmanian finished eighth, before being proclaimed the winner of the 2026 Golf Australia National Order of Merit for men on Monday.

Now, the likes of Mudadana turn their attention to professional events.

“Probably just play a few of the Aussie Tour stuff now and hopefully get into the Aussie Open and that will round out the year for me,” Mudadana said.

Adding of the next event on the Aussie Tour schedule, the NSW Open, he said: “I played last year. Didn’t play that good but hopefully this year will be a bit different.”

Takis, who was fourth last year in Dubai, didn’t produce his best tournament but endeared himself to fans around the world via the broadcast with some of his highlights.

The Queenslander, who plays his college golf at San Diego State, had his moment in the sun on Saturday when making four birdies in a row. The final shot came via a chip-in at the 12th hole.

But it was one shot, which has one of the lowest success rates in golf, truly elevated his star.

Making birdies in bunches all week, Takis took driver off the deck at the par-5 seventh hole in a wind he at the time likened to a cyclone. The swales and mounds of Te Arai helped the ball get closer to the hole to set up a stunning eagle.

“I think it is one of the best shots I’ve in 2026,” American commentator Rich Lerner said when labelling it the shot of the day.

Lerner wasn’t the only American to be dazzled during the week south of Auckland, with the South Course at Te Arai receiving rave reviews from those taking in the action.

Ranked consistently in the top 100 courses in the world, along with the neighbouring North Course, not to mention the private Tara Iti next door that has welcomed Rory McIlroy as a guest, the Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore design provided plenty of its own moments.

The undulating dunes, and sometimes extreme greens that saw players putting at right angles to the hole, sparked plenty of conversation on social media.

“For less than the price of 3 day package at Pebble Beach, you can fly to New Zealand and play Te Arai,” popular golf course X account @Top100Rick posted.

“I know that’s a lot of money. But if considering a splurge on expensive USA golf, consider international!

“Also, if you aren’t watching the Asia Pacific Amateur, you are missing out!”

The course rotates with the North Course as being open to the public each day.

VETERAN WHO ALMOST LOST HIS LIFE WINS AGAIN

Full of boundless energy at age 54 and still regularly competing with the “flat bellies” rather than the “fat bellies”, Jason Norris added another trophy to his growing resumé as he heads for one of his happiest hunting grounds.

Experiencing a couple of wobbles during a final round battle with David McKenzie, Norris claimed an emotional NSW Senior Open victory after learning his mother Lynn had suffered a stroke while he was sharing 13th in Kalgoorlie last month.

Returning to Queensland, then back on Tour as Lynn improved, Norris finally claimed the event held annually at Thurgoona on the edge of the Murray River.

“It hasn’t been easy at home lately, when I was back to lead, I thought, you know, Mum would love for me to do well, and that’s what I used,” Norris said Sunday.

His success as a senior golfer is all the more remarkable considering a horrific accident almost 20 years ago threatened to end not only his career, but also his life.

Fresh off winning the NSW Open in 2007, Norris jumped on a bike at Coolum during the Australian PGA and in the dark of night was thrown into concrete losing most of his teeth, while his nasal bone was driven back into his skull.

His recovery was aided at the time by the PGA of Australia’s benevolent fund, with Norris making the most of his second chance.

He will no doubt be playing with his mother front of mind again this week when he defends his title at the Australian PGA Seniors – broadcast Saturday and Sunday on Fox Sports and Kayo – a tournament he also won in 2023.