Lucas Herbert shoots 64 to take two-shot lead at LIV Golf Virginia

POTOMAC FALLS, Virginia: Lucas Herbert of Australia eagled the par-5 second hole at Trump ‌National DC on his way to an 8-under-par 64, staking himself to a two-shot lead after one round of LIV Golf Virginia in Potomac Falls, Virginia.

Herbert, 30, has won on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Asian Tour but is still seeking his first LIV title in his third year with the league. To hear Herbert tell it, he was frankly surprised at how well he performed on Day 1.

“I don’t know that my expectations could have been any lower than what they were today, having not seen the golf course, feeling pretty under the weather and struggling with a back issue for a couple of weeks and struggling with my game definitely the last few events,” Herbert said.

“I think over the last 12 months I’ve developed some ‌habits that I ‌wasn’t happy with, and I’m just sort of starting to get ‌my teeth into fixing those. Yeah, I think my goal was to try and feel like I made some progress on those this week. Strangely, here I am sitting here in front of you with a two-shot lead after the first round.”

Herbert’s opening hole in LIV’s shotgun start was the 15th, and he managed birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 before reaching the green in two at No. 2. He holed his 15-foot eagle putt from there.

A five-birdie run in a six-hole stretch (Nos. 6-11) cemented his trajectory up the leaderboard.

While several LIV golfers are preparing for next week’s PGA ‌Championship, Herbert is not in the field for that one. ‌However, Herbert could qualify for the US Open if he holds on this week; he’s projected to ‌land in the top three of the individual season standings with a win, and the ‌top three as of May 18 receive US Open exemptions.

“For about two seconds, I wondered