By Adam Pengilly
Lucas Herbert used a Twitter tease to talk his way into the Australian Open and last week fled a tournament mid-way through to attend a mate's wedding, but was just as precise with clubs in hand to shoot to the early lead at Royal Sydney.
The then amateur who slept overnight in the car as his parents drove him from Melbourne to Sydney to qualify for the Australian Open two years ago carded a nerveless five-under 67 to share the lead with Curtis Luck, himself still not a professional, after Thursday's first round.
Twitter off the tee: Lucas Herbert plays his tee shot on the 17th hole during day one of the 2016 Australian Open.Credit: Mark Metcalfe
But despite prodding Golf Australia last week to give him an invite – trolling them over a promotional video using his image joking he didn't have a start in the tournament – it still wasn't the most bizarre part of the 20-year-old's preparation.
He actually left Sydney mid-way through last week's NSW Open to attend a good friend's wedding in Bendigo before returning for the weekend's third and fourth rounds. It was only then he learnt he had been issued the last invite for the Australian Open.
"I had a bit of time up my sleeve [after finishing the NSW Open second round]," Herbert said. "But getting to parking and over to the terminal I made the flight with a minute to spare. I was the last on the plane and the door shut behind me. I had a couple [of drinks at the wedding], but I kept it pretty quiet.
"Then I got the last flight back to Sydney on Qantas. It worked out fine in the end, but it could have gone disastrously too."
Which is hardly a word to describe his bogey-free first round, which had him and fellow 20-year-old Luck a shot ahead of a quintet of players headed up by veteran Peter O'Malley, who still has 10 years up his sleeve when compared to the combined ages of Herbert and Luck.
Tournament drawcard and world No.5 Jordan Spieth (-3) is poised to climb the leaderboard on Friday despite being outshone by Luck in the marquee morning pairing while Adam Scott (+1) laboured in the trickier afternoon conditions.
The crowd pullers couldn't take the gloss though off Herbert, who shot to prominence as a 18-year-old in the now defunct Australian Masters and Australian Open in 2014.
On the recent Twitter tirade, Herbert joked: "I didn't expect to get an invite so I didn't feel like I did myself any harm by throwing them out there.
"I didn't want to be disrespectful or anything like that – it was just a bit of banter – and it paid off quite well. I probably need to thank [Channel] Seven for throwing me in that little promo there. The boys thought it was pretty funny and I got a few likes on Twitter as well."
Scott wouldn't have felt a whole lot of social media love after his 73, a far cry from the scintillating course-record 62 he signed for in the opening round before 72nd-hole heartbreak the last time the national championship was played at Royal Sydney in 2013.
Asked what he needed to improve on, Scott said: "Everything actually. I didn't drive well, hit the irons well, chip well or putt well today. It was all very average.
"I made it hard to get any momentum going even though I had under par on the front nine. A couple of bad swings showed up on the back nine and put me on the back foot and then it was all into that blustery wind on the back nine."
AUSTRALIAN OPEN LEADERBOARD
-5: Lucas Herbert, Curtis Luck (a)
-4: Ryan Fox (NZ), Ben Clementson, Adam Burdett, Peter O'Malley, David Klein (Ger)
-3: Jordan Spieth (US), Jamie Arnold, Dimi Papadatos, Matthew Goggin, Lincoln Tighe, Wade Ormsby, Matthew Guyatt, Travis Smyth (a)