Lucas Herbert claimed his maiden PGA Tour win in just his third start and now has his sights set on playing in the Presidents Cup. Here, his lifelong swing coach – Dominic Azzopardi, goes through his unique swing and how it generates power and precision.
Lucas Herbert’s win in Bermuda late last year was a career altering moment for the young Victorian, and came after a difficult decision to send out an SOS call to his coach Dominic Azzopardi.
Having all but guaranteed his PGA Tour status at the first event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Lucas began to desert him.
“I was really struggling those first two events in Napa and Jackson. It's a really tough call because at the time there was not really a guarantee of being able to get home to Australia. For me to make the decision to get him (Azzopardi) out, because I knew he would come, I knew if I called him and said I was really struggling, he would come, and that was the problem because I knew there was a chance he would be stuck out here for a long time,” Herbert told the Australian media.
“For him to say ‘I'll come and I'll help you as much as I can and we'll do whatever we've got to do,’ obviously I appreciate that.
“We hit a lot of golf balls in the two weeks leading up to Bermuda. Just my golf swing was a long way off and I was not in a good spot technically. To be able to fix all that and get it into a position that was playable, especially in those tough conditions in Bermuda, that was very satisfying.”
Having looked over the swing and Azzopardi’s analysis on these pages, Herbert added the following about his swing thoughts on his way to a maiden PGA Tour win.
“I just wanted to take the club outside and open the clubface going back and just had to trust it going through. Relative to what I was feeling before that, I just felt like I was going to start the ball way left and hook it, so I had to trust that,” the 25-year-old told Golf Australia Magazine.
“Once I felt that on Saturday afternoon when we hit a few balls that I wasn’t going to hit it left, then I could trust it on Sunday. I was able to know that I could commit to a swing and not miss it left, that is a pretty big thing for me. I was just trying to keep my rhythm and tempo as well.”
THE GREATEST THING I'VE SEEN AS A COACH
When I started working with Lucas at 13 he had a loose country Victoria golf swing that matched up and worked. And I was very mindful to think “If I try and make him an Adam Scott lookalike, he will have no idea what’s going on and he won’t be able to play”.
But we had to tighten it up.
I talk a lot about parameters, we have got to keep the path, the face, everything within parameters, the length of his swing, his hands at address. I don’t mind them being a little bit low, but there becomes a point where if he goes too low, then it affects things, and he can’t get the club into positions.
Everything for 12 years has been him developing an understanding of what those parameters are.
As a coach the best thing I have ever seen was when Lucas won the Irish Open this year. On the 5th tee he hit it so far right and the next five holes hit it sideways, chipped out, got it up-and-down, but worked through. He spoke afterwards that those five holes he was going through his head all the lessons we have had trying to work out what I would be saying or doing.
I was sitting on the couch watching for the first five holes knowing exactly what he was doing and to see him standing on the 10th tee creating a feel and I was saying “Yes that’s it, mate, that’s the one!”. Then to see him pipe one on 12, I knew he would win then.
As his coach, that is so pleasing that a guy can work through that situation, leading a big tournament, with clarity. Understand his own golf swing in a way that he can work through that rough spot and come out the other side flushing it and going on to win.
I think a lot of coaches don’t get that with their players, the coach needs to be there. I coach very much in a way, especially with Herbie, that he knows when it goes one way, why it does.
He has no understanding of other people’s golf swings, but he knows his own incredibly well.
I saw Rory McIlroy interviewed after winning recently and he talked about the disappointment of the Ryder Cup, and said something along the lines of “I just went back to doing what I do well. I don’t want to be someone else, I know what I do well, and when I do that I know I play good”.
For Lucas we know and are comfortable with the fact that when he plays his best golf, it is world class. He can compete in a major if he is doing what he does well.
I talk to him a lot about that a lot, “We don’t have to be someone else, instead let’s be the best version of Lucas Herbert we can”, because we have seen on the world stage that he is there and able to compete with his best stuff. – Dominic Azzopardi
