Lucas Herbert says he’s got more weapons in his arsenal to attack leaderboards during the Australian summer of golf after a year spent learning from Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones on LIV Golf’s Ripper GC team.

Herbert, 28, joined LIV Golf from the PGA Tour at the beginning of 2024 to play on the all-Australian Ripper GC – captained by the 2022 British Open champion, Smith. Smith’s stellar career includes a major, a world rankings best of No.2, six PGA Tour wins, three LIV Golf individual wins and three Australian PGAs.

The three-time DP World Tour winner and one-time PGA Tour title holder, Herbert, enjoyed an extraordinary second half to his debut campaign on LIV, including a seventh and eighth-place results in the final two events of the 13-tournament individual season. He finished 25th on the overall points standings. Herbert also contributed heavily to Ripper GC at the teams championship in Dallas recently, where the Australians took out their first season-long champions title.

“I think I’ve developed massively as a player this year,” Herbert said in a media call in Melbourne on Thursday. “LIV League has been a massive contributor to that, both with scheduling because it’s allowed me more time for developmental blocks in throughout the year to really up-skill myself, and also the ability to speak to Cam, Leish Jonesy, the caddies and the support staff.”

Asked whether it was Smith’s generational short game, Leishman’s shot-shaping or Jones’ aspirational pace of play and elite ball-striking, Herbert couldn’t pinpoint just one nugget he’d picked up from his teammates.

Although there was a cool and valuable session towards the end of the season.

“Cam spent an hour with me at the Greenbrier [event] on the short game area and helped me out there,” Herbert said of Smith, whose chipping, pitching and putting are considered among the best in the world.

Now, as announced by Golf Australia and the PGA of Australia on Thursday, Bendigo native Herbert play three Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia events in a row. Starting at the NSW Open at Murray Downs in mid November, Hebert will also tee up at the BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in Brisbane and the Australian Open – in his adopted home of the Melbourne Sandbelt at Victoria GC and Kingston Heath.

Herbert feels ready to win his first major title on home soil.

“I’d love to lift one of the big trophies here in Australia at some point in my career. As long as I can keep improving my game, I don’t see any reason why I can’t do that at some point,” he said.

After the Australian Open, Herbert will also play in the Webex Players Series Murray River at Cobram Barooga Golf Club in early 2025 – during the second half of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season.

Smith, meanwhile, will also tee up alongside Herbert in the NSW Open, as well as the two Australian majors. Smith will also play the the Queensland PGA later this month. Smith and Herbert are sure to draw bumper crowds for the NSW Open in the Swan Hill area.

“Everyone can empathise with what it feels like to go back to a grassroots level, for us it’s playing those kind of events,” Herbert said. “Both Leish and I are from country [Victoria], so we can really relate to playing country golf courses where it’s not quite as perfect as well-known courses worldwide, but there’s a whole art and a whole skill set involved with playing some of those venues and and knowing your way around to get around those places. And, yeah, there’s, there’s something, there’s special about country golf. Murray Downs and Cobram Barooga, I’ve played multiple junior events there throughout my career.”