Herbert uses birdie spree to take lead at Fortinet Championship

Lucas Herbert reeled off six birdies in a row to turn in a 9-under 63 and establish a two-shot lead after the opening round of the Fortinet Championship in California.

The Fortinet Championship is the first of seven events in the newly designed 'FedEx Cup Fall' series.

Players need to finish the fall in the top 125 of the points standings to retain full eligibility for the 2024 season. The top 50 players from this summer's FedEx Cup play-offs are already locked in.

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Australian Herbert played the back nine of Silverado Resort's North Course in 7-under 30 to set the pace. SH Kim of South Korea carded an eagle and five birdies to assume second place.

Former major champion Jason Dufner was part of a tie for third at 6-under 66 with Kelly Kraft, Zac Blair, Mark Hubbard, England's Harry Hall and South Korea's Sung Kang.

Herbert is playing his first tournament since The Open Championship in July. He said part of that had to do with where he was mentally this summer.

"Golf's been getting me down pretty hard this year," Herbert said. "It was just a tough stretch there where I had a lot going on both in my life and on the golf course as well.

"I missed the cut at The Open, I didn't really want to think about golf or talk about golf for about a good month there, just needed to get away from the game and refresh everything."