For fun, Herbert takes his ease before the weekend, 3 blues remain at the dock

Local and crowd favorite Lucas Herbert extended his lead to four shots after the first two days of competition at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open, with a total of -14. In delicate conditions only two French people made the cut.

The triple winner on the DP World Tour, Lucas Herbertis increasing pressure at the start of the season. After a week of warming up further north, near Brisbane, the native of Bendigo, some 150km from Melbourne, is taking advantage this week of the softness of his own mattress to feel even more comfortable in this second stage of the season.

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He is home here in Victoria. And these are not the complementary difficulties of the two courses played this week (the Kingston Heath and the Victoria GC) which disturbed him beyond measure. After an opening 63 (-8), the player of LIV repeated a high-flying performance, in the wind, in 66 (-6) to fly up the rankings in -14 total with 4 strokes ahead of his closest pursuer.

After his game, Herbert was amused by the differences in his first two performances: “ I am very happy. It's funny, I played pretty well yesterday, but I didn't putt very well. And then I felt like I putted really well today, chipped really well, but the rest of the game wasn't up to par. It was quite funny, it was like two days at odds with each other to get good scores all the same. So I appreciated that my putting was there when I needed it. »

Pineau reacts, Perez gets bogged down, Ko KO

10th in the event in 2022, Pierre Pineau had fallen in love with Australia that year, to the point of making a point of returning to the southern lands as often as possible. Freshly qualified for the 2025 season of the DP World Tour, the player Vaudreuilremembered this great performance this Friday to give himself the means to make the cut after a day in 68 (-3). He will play on the weekend withAdrien Saddier another qualified tricolor, in 28th position and -4 total.

A lot of disappointment, however, for the other three French players in the contingent this week. Very Bastien despite his 6 birdies was weighed down by two double bogeys in particular and missed the cut by two strokes. Victor Perez played under par on Friday, but had fallen too far behind the day before to play two more rounds. Jeong Weon Ko played 10 more moves than the day before (67 – 77) and brings up the rear in 91st position alongside Tarbais.

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Photo: GETTYIMAGES/AFP