Tour pro on two-month hiatus? He was turning into 'spiteful' and 'bitter' person

Australian PGA Tour pro Lucas Herbert has revealed the mental health struggles that led to a near two-month hiatus from professional golf.

Ben Smith

15 Sep 2023

Tour pro on two-month hiatus? He was turning into 'spiteful' and 'bitter' person — Tour pro on two-month hiatus? He was turning into 'spiteful' and 'bitter'…

PGA Tour pro has Lucas Herbert opened up on his hiatus from professional golf.

The Australian hasn't been seen on tour since he missed the cut at the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

In his first competitive start in more than two months, Herbert posted an opening 9-under 63 to take the early lead at the Fortinet Championship.

The tournament is the first event of the reimagined fall schedule which sees players jockeying for position in the 2024 FedEx Cup as well as trying to get into some of the early signature events.

Later, Herbert spoke with reporters about some of the struggles off the course.

Turns out, it got to the point where at times he was wishing his flights would be cancelled ahead of an event.

And he felt he was turning into a 'bitter' and 'spiteful' person.

"From the outside it doesn't look like the greatest decision to make," Herbert said. "But I really needed the reset."

The 27-year-old, who has won four times around the world including the most recent ISPS Handa Championship, said golf has been 'getting me down pretty hard this year'.

Why?

He explained:

"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

"Yeah, it sucked, I'd love to be here or up on the FedEx Cup standings as we speak, but hopefully taking that good break, refreshing, have a little reset gives me a better chance to play well in the fall season and get some better results and get into the bigger events again next year.

"I've had to deal with a lot off the golf course and it felt like I was kind of idling at 80 percent when I did get on the course. [I] just didn't have any space for things to go wrong, I didn't have any space to deal with that."

Watch:

Here's PGA Tour pro Lucas Herbert opening up on some of his mental health struggles.
He has returned to action this week after not playing since the 151st Open. pic.twitter.com/WhZM5wOU9P
— GolfMagic (@GolfMagic) September 15, 2023

Herbert said the issue primarily came from managing his expectations. He was turning into a 'bitter and spiteful person', he said.

He added: "Not over the top, but I didn't like the version of myself I look back on and see at the Open Championship. I think I was wound up pretty tight and kind of lashed out at people around me too quickly, too easy."

Before he departed his press conference, he added: "I felt like if I could just come out here and be like a better person, the golf game's kind of the next thing, but like just being a better person I think to the people around me, my relationships, you know, family, friends, that only benefit."

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