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By Kent Gray
Lucas Herbert started this new wrap-around European Tour season with a round of 80 at the Australian PGA Championship before Christmas, not that he wants reminding. Luckily you’re only as good as your last performance.

The 23-year-old Australian fired a sensational Friday best 63 at Emirates Golf Club to set a -12 clubhouse target that Bryson DeChambeau would eventually match for a share of the halfway lead at the 30th Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

The eight over loop at Royal Pines in late November was an anomaly, of course. Herbert promptly retorted with a 69 and while he still comfortably missed the cut on Queensland’s Gold Coast, it reminded everyone of the quality that produced a thoroughly impressive 46th placing in his rookie Race to Dubai campaign last year.

There was a 69 to open his maiden Desert Classic campaign as well but the real fireworks were reserved for Friday with Herbert, starting on the Majlis’ back nine, book-ending his nine-under effort with an eagle start on 10 and a fortuitous par on the 9th when he willed in a 40-footer after his approach had ended up wet and resulted in a penalty drop.

There were seven birdies in between as Herbert compiled nines of 32-31 for a total that left him just two shots shy of Ernie Els’ course record, a 12-birdie, 21-putt doozy that has stood since the first of the Big Easy’s record three Dallah trophy triumphs in 1994.

“I kept a bit of an eye on the scores this morning, and even looking at yesterday, everyone is making those numbers around the back nine. You’ve obviously got the three par-5s, and 17 is drivable, so there’s some good birdie opportunities. I knew I just had to take advantage of them straight out of the gate,” said Herbert who added birdies at 11 and 12 to be four under for his first three holes.

“I did that with an eagle-birdie-birdie start, and kind of just kept flowing. I was like 7-under through about 11 holes, and it just felt like I was cruising. I probably left some out there to be honest. Yeah, and then obviously 40-footer on the last there to finish off with a par was pretty nice.”

Herbert racked up five top-5s and seven top-10s in total last season to bank €893,000, a season highlighted by a T-2 finish at the Portugal Masters.  That opening blip on the Gold Coast aside, he’s making a decent fist of living up to this season’s elevated expectations.

“Something like last year would be pretty good. With locking up my card, I can now play the Rolex events, and that’s going to bring a new challenge, playing against harder players for a lot more money. But if we just keep ticking off the right processes and keep improving, I can’t go too far wrong.”

Herbert is clearly enjoying his first visit to Dubai after finishing T-54 in Abu Dhabi last week. He bogeyed his opening hole early on Friday morning but has a clean scorecard since, playing the other 35 holes in -13.

“A lot of left to right holes out there, so that suits me perfectly, just bombing that draw out there. You know, those par-5s are awesome. I think they’re such good holes, and if you get it in play off the tee you can really take advantage of them and get around the green in two.

“I haven’t got enough of a look at the weather forecast to see what it’s going to do over the weekend. I mean, I don’t expect to shoot another two 63s out there. I think today was some of the really good golf that I can play, and it’s going to be hard to replicate that.

“But if I just — so cliché — just keep putting one foot in front of the other, I won’t be doing too much wrong. Keep the bogeys off the card, try and pick off those par-5s to birdie, and I don’t think we’ll be too far away from it Sunday afternoon.”