"I wanted to carry on": LIV Golf UK leader Lucas Herbert on keeping Jarrod Lyle's legacy alive

Lucas Herbert opened up on the impact Jarrod Lyle had on his life after taking a commanding lead of LIV Golf UK at the halfway stage. 

Lyle was an Australian professional golfer who battled leukaemia in his teenage years while pursuing a PGA Tour career.

He died on 8 August 2018 aged 36.

Lyle never won on the PGA Tour but recorded two victories on the Korn Ferry Tour before his passing, with one of the most memorable moments of his career coming with a hole-in-one during the 2011 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale.

To this day, the tournament honours his memory with tributes at the iconic 16th hole.

Herbert also keeps alive Lyle's memory by wearing a pin on his hat and using a Leuk the Duck headcover - a nod to the cartoon mascot associated with the charity the golfer supported.

Herbert was asked about Lyle after Friday’s second round of LIV Golf UK, ahead of the eight-year anniversary of the Australian golfer's passing.

A second-round 66 saw Herbert open up a four-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau heading into the weekend. 

"I think I just resonated so much with Jarrod," Herbert said. "He's from a country town in Australia. 

"Not the same town as me, but there's a lot of similarities, Shepparton and Bendigo. 

"They're not one-horse towns, but they're smaller country towns where people have the same kind of values.

"We played at the same club growing up, Commonwealth Golf Club. 

"So I felt like there was a lot of parallels across our journey.

"He was someone who was great to me coming through. 

"I was just turning pro around that time. He was back in Australia playing a bit of golf. 

"He was sort of in between his bouts of chemotherapy.

"Yeah, just someone that I guess I admired a lot about his outlook on life despite how bad a hand he'd been dealt."

Herbert added: "It was pretty tragic to sort of have him go the way he did, and he fought very, very hard.

"I guess at the time I felt like Jarrod was ... they obviously had the Challenge Foundation that had helped him quite a lot, helped a lot of kids in similar positions quite a lot, but that was something they'd supported a lot.

"I think you get someone like Jarrod passing in that kind of situation, the charity gets some love for a couple of months, and then it kind of fades away and everyone forgets about it.

"I sort of made a bit of a point at the time that I didn't want it to be like that. I wanted to carry on."

Herbert, who impressed at last week's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, said he hasn't ever experienced a sibling or family member getting really, really sick.

"So that was kind of the closest I'd had of someone that was close in my life, and I wanted to just make a difference going forward.

"Whether it's other kids that have the same conditions or similar conditions, if we can help them out, or if some kid gets a lot of excitement about coming out to play golf with me or just meeting me, like that's so easy for me to do.

"I just wanted it to carry on a little bit further than a couple of months.

"It's been great to carry it on for nearly eight years now. It's something I'm pretty proud of, and I want to continue carrying it on forward. 

"It's become sort of kind of part of my character to have something yellow, whether it's the head cover or the pin on the hat.

"That's what everyone kind of knows me as, so I want to keep continuing that on.

"Continuing his legacy and trying to build the Challenge foundation up as much as we can."