An Australian LIV golf star has revealed how he took over his local pub to celebrate a monumental win last weekend.

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Lucas Herbert came from four shots back to overrun Ripper GC teammate Cameron Smith at the NSW Open to win his first professional event on home soil and spark memorable celebrations.

The 28-year-old hails from the Victorian country town of Bendigo which is a roughly 90-minute drive from Murray Downs where the state open was played, and he seized the opportunity to high tail home with the trophy named after 1960 British Open champion Kel Nagle.

“My favourite pub in Bendigo, the Tysons Reef Hotel, I texted them before I had the trophy in my hands to stay open tonight,” Herbert said.

“It was pretty special because it was the first time I had won and been back in Bendigo that night. It was pretty cool, so I texted all the boys and told them they needed to get there to celebrate.

“There were a few familiar faces in the pub with us that night. Obviously, a few of the boys were at Murray Downs and they made the trek back with us that night to Bendigo.

“It was a pretty cool evening, not a lot of recollection at the end of it.

“I’ve been telling everyone that I celebrated appropriately.”

Big celebrations have become part and parcel of enjoying life for Australia’s LIV golfers.

Herbert, Smith along with Marc Leishman and Matt Jones of the all-Australian LIV team Ripper GC famously held a ‘Mad Monday’ to bask in the glory of winning LIV’s team championship earlier this month.

They are renowned partiers with Smith going viral after winning The Open at St Andrews in 2022 for his guess that the Claret Jug fits two beers in it.

Herbert opted to take that approach to the trophy that will sit proudly on his mantelpiece.

“I think (the bill) only got to $800 or $900 but I don’t really know what was charged,” he said.

“The Kel Nagle Cup fits seven beers in it. Once that got filled it, it was a pretty tough task to get out.

“It’s not a great drinking trophy, it’s got quite flat edges so we wore most of the seven beers trying to drink them out of the trophy.”

Herbert is playing in the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in Brisbane this week, and speaking to media on Wednesday he outlined just how much winning on his home tour meant.

He pocketed $136,515.79 for his efforts on the other side of the Murray River to the Victorian town of Swan Hill.

It pales in comparison to the roughly $9 million in prize money he earned on the LIV circuit this year, but Herbert expressed that honour, and prestige is more important when teeing it up in Australia.

“It wasn’t until I got halfway home, and I got a text from the PGA that I found out how much money I’d won because it didn’t mean anything,” Herbert said.

“It was more about winning a tournament, getting your hands on a trophy, proving to yourself that you could beat someone like Cam (Smith) and some of these guys who are playing really well from the Australasian tour.

“It definitely meant a lot to me, and I know the feelings I had down the stretch were very similar to the feelings I’ve had at big tournaments around the world as well.”

It was quite the turnaround after he felt the rust during his practice rounds from not having played for eight weeks.

“I was telling my girlfriend to probably not bother coming down for the weekend because I was playing that badly,” Herbert said with a laugh.

The motivation to make the most of his time at home was too strong, however.

The Victorian – whose world ranking peaked at 40 – played only one major, the US PGA Championship, this year, and next week’s Australian Open offers a spot at next year’s Open Championship for the top three finishers, who not already exempt.

Obviously, any golfer wants to play on the sport’s biggest stage but Herbert’s reasonings are not entirely selfish.

His time on LIV playing team golf has given him a broader perspective – he even compared learning from Smith to having Nick Daicos, Christian Petracca and Marcus Bontempelli on your team.

He is looking at Australian golf with a keener eye and has watched eagerly as Australian golf has benefited from the likes of Smith, Minjee Lee and Hannah Green winning majors in recent years.

He wants to step up and contribute more too.

“The impact of playing in those major championships, winning them, playing well, having success ultimately had a big impact on Australian golf,” Herbert said.

“I look at the impact Cam winning The Open in 2022 had on Australian golf. It feels like golf has not been in a position this good in a long time.

“You look at events like LIV Adelaide with how many people there, the buzz around these two weeks and how much it means.

“I look at driving ranges all around the country and they’re all packed at various random times throughout the day. It seems like golf is thriving in Australia.

“Ultimately us playing well in those major championships has that impact and that’s what it’s kind of boiled back to.

“If I took away the selfish element of wanting to win and look at the broader impact I can have on the Australian community in a golf sense, it’s massive.”

Herbert’s access to the majors is limited by being a LIV player but the situation remains unclear with the possible PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger bubbling away in the background.

LIV players will be eligible for the US PGA Championship next year, but otherwise if the landscape doesn’t change, he’s committed to finding a way in.

“I know there’s an avenue through next week with the Australian Open with the Order of Merit in Australia, I believe there’s some exemptions there as well and then you’ve got the 36-hole qualifiers as well,” Herbert said.

“So, I’ll be doing everything I can to try and give myself a good chance to qualify for those because they are still pretty important in my life.”