But the shock breast cancer diagnosis his mother, Meredith, received a few months ago is fuelling an extra level of resolve as he looks to put a smile on her face by winning the Australian Open starting at Victoria and Kingston Heath Golf Clubs on Thursday.

“It’s sad to watch your parents go through that kind of stuff but she’s more stubborn than me, so I know that she’ll get through everything and get there at some point,” Herbert said before a practice round today.

“My Dad’s a great support for her. I know he’ll do more than she wants him to do at home, so that sort of takes a bit of the pressure away and makes me feel a little bit more at ease, obviously being out there on Tour.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about it the last couple of weeks and Mum more than anything wants me to go and play well and get my head on TV so that it gives her something to watch sitting at home, rather than being able to travel with me.

“So, if that’s what she wants me to do, I’m going to have to go and work on that for her.”

The 26-year-old paid tribute to his father, Lyndon, for the sacrifices he has made over the years to ensure he was successful in his pursuit of a professional golf career.

Herbert gave an insight into the long hours father and son would spend on the road to get the coaching he required.

Herbert paid tribute to his dad, Lyndon, for all the sacrifices he made to help him succeed. PHOTO: Getty Images.

In his final two years of school, Lyndon would wake up around 4 am every Thursday to drive his son from Bendigo, in country Victoria, to Melbourne for a 6.30am training session at the Victorian Institute of Sport. He would Lyndon would take him back to school and then in the afternoon they would drive the 250km round trip to Ballarat so he could train with his long-time coach, Dom Azzopardi.

“That was us for a Thursday for two years of school and that kind of felt like nothing. He’d do that kind of stuff all the time,” Herbert said.  

“Aussie Masters in 2014, I finished 11th and didn’t get the invite to the Australian Open, so he goes, I’ll drive you to Sydney tonight, because we couldn’t get a flight. He drove me overnight to Sydney to get to the Monday qualifier, then caddied for me when we got in.

“He was doing that sort of stuff for me all the time when I was a kid, so I think he’s going to love stepping into that role again of caring for Mum and looking after Mum again. That sort of puts me at ease a little bit more to go travel a bit.

“I’ve looked at the schedule to see when I can get back next and it’s just tricky. From January to August it’s going to be flat out, so I don't know whether I’ll get back or not, but I know that he’ll be looking after her better than she needs.”

Herbert played a rigorous schedule of 24 tournaments across both the PGA and DP World Tours this year, which has seen him criss-cross the globe from the United States, to Europe, Japan, South Africa and now home. He’s had moderate success in comparison with his two-victory season in 2021 when he won events on both sides of the Atlantic.

He was forced to withdraw from last week’s Australian PGA Championship due to a back injury, and if this was any other week other than Australian Open week, he might be at home with his Mum.

“I want to win the Australian Open,” he said. “I don’t want to sit on my couch and watch someone else win it this week and we’ve got a lot of time off after this week as well,” he said.

“I think if this was going to be the first event of a seven in nine week stretch, something like that, you’d probably look at whether this is the right time to come back, just to give yourself the most time to recover, but I think being the last event of the season, it’s in a good enough position where I feel like I can play this week and not do any more damage. That’s where I feel like I’m at.”