Herbert flows forward on 13th Beach

Lucas Herbert intends to leave the rules of the fracas of Dubai fourteen days ago and concentrates on his 2019 goals, starting with the ISPS Handa Vic Open this week

Herbert, the 23-year-old Australian who is the highest ranked local player in the men's field this week, was beaten two strokes for improving his lie during the Dubai-tournament during the European Tour, but also faced with fierce criticism in social media.

Caught by the cameras that use his wedge to put some loose vegetable matter in a sandy waste area near his golf ball, he has gone further. He tagged a cheat in the dark swamp of the internet, but in fact the reaction was slightly less intense than expected, as the TV images looked awful.

"I mean, it's made a lot more than what it actually meant to be," he said. "It was probably a bit of a misunderstanding about the rules of my interpretation and a little carelessness in clearly not coming down and moving some loose obstacles with my hand and carelessly scraping away with the club." "I learned my lesson there. Of two penalty points probably cost me a lot of money and many points on the world rankings that I need for the team of the Presidents Cup, I would like to think I will not do that again soon. & # 39; & # 39;

This week's Open is a priority because he has not yet won as a professional, despite having defeated no fewer than 175 places in the world rankings in 2018. He had a number of near misses, including on the 13th beach in 2017, when he fell into the last four holes.

The Presidential Cup in Royal Melbourne from 12-15 December is a big draw for him. Eight years ago, when the event came to Melbourne, he wore a walking scoreboard on the last day for Geoff Ogilvy's singles match against American Bill Haas; now he has a chance to join the international team.

He has to collect enough points this year to achieve the rankings in the international rankings (he is now 15th) to guarantee his place. Besides that, Captain Ernie Els has four captains to add, although Herbert does not want to trust in luck.

"It's all up to me," he said. "I do not think I'll get a Captain captain there." "It's as if I can play well enough to get myself into that team." or not, I mean, it would be incredible to play, especially considering that I currently live about a kilometer from the golf course, it would be incredible to play Royal Melbourne, a course I played a lot of adults, against those Americans who are as strong as ever, really. & # 39;

At number 75 in the world he is also quite close to a top 50 ranking that he would get in the majors, starting with Augusta in April. These are interesting times for the boy from Bendigo in the north of Victoria, who came through the Victorian Institute of Sports programs.

This week on the 13th beach he has his eye on a victory. Pure and simple. "I really had a good chance of winning (in 2017), realistically," he said. "I think back and I was a different golfer, I think, since then I have made a lot of changes and big steps, but the event has also grown significantly, because it is European and you have pretty good players this week. win, right?

"Sometimes, if your form is not right, you can afford to be more realistic, but I think you're trying to win every week, especially when you come home to an event in Australia – it's a great opportunity to win the CV That's where my expectations are this week. & # 39;