Herbert Just Shot the Best Round of His Life. Rahm's Sweating.
No bogeys. Nine birdies. An eagle. Herbert didn't just win day one at JCB, he torched it.
Lucas Herbert went round JCB Golf & Country Club on Thursday and made it look embarrassingly easy. Eleven-under. Bogey-free. Nine birdies, one eagle, and a three-shot lead nobody in this field is going to enjoy chasing down. He's not even pretending it's normal. "First time I've had 11, so that's kind of cool," Herbert said. "That's a fun one." Fun for him. Considerably less fun for the rest of the LIV Golf UK field, and especially unpleasant reading for Jon Rahm.
The quick version, if you're in a hurry
Herbert shot the lowest round of his career, 61, to lead LIV Golf United Kingdom after round one. Bryson DeChambeau's the closest thing to a threat at 8-under 64. Rahm, who came into the week needing a big result to lock up his third straight Individual Championship, went the other way entirely and shot 73.
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Round one leader | Lucas Herbert (Ripper GC) — 61 (-11), bogey-free |
| Chasing hardest | Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers GC) — 64 (-8) |
| Tied third | Harold Varner III (OKGC), Tyrrell Hatton (Legion XIII) — both 66 |
| Team lead | Ripper GC at 19-under, four clear of Crushers GC |
| Points race headline | Jon Rahm opened 73, dropped to tied 38th |
How Herbert actually did it
This wasn't a round that crept up on anybody, least of all Herbert. Three birdies straight off the tee. Out in 31. Then a 10th-hole eagle putt from nearly 48 feet that had no business going in. Four more birdies followed in a five-hole stretch on the back nine, and suddenly a 59 was live with two holes left. He parred both and shrugged off the near-miss entirely.
"If you were going to pick days you were going to shoot 59, I wouldn't have thought today would've been the day," he said. "The golf course is a little firm, which makes it play a little tougher, and a bit of breeze out there kind of moved around. I'm pretty incredibly happy with 61."
Here's the part that should genuinely worry everyone else: Herbert did this while sitting on a negative Strokes Gained Putting average all season. He rolled in over 120 feet of putts on Thursday alone. Every other part of his game has been humming, and now the putter's decided to join the party too.
DeChambeau's not letting him run away with it
Bryson DeChambeau put up an 8-under 64 that had its own fireworks, four straight birdies, another run of three, and an eagle at the sixth. There's history brewing here too. These two were nearly drawn together in the final group last Saturday at The Open Championship before DeChambeau's two-stroke penalty scrambled things. No such luck avoiding each other this time. They'll play Friday's second round together, alongside Varner and Hatton.
"Every time I play with him, it's a fun battle," Herbert said. "He brings a lot of energy with the crowd. I'm kind of looking forward to tomorrow."
DeChambeau, for his part, sounded almost relieved to finally get the pairing he was denied. "I wish we could have gone to battle last week. It wasn't that way. But life goes on," he said. "For me, I'm excited with Lucas tomorrow. That'll be great."
Rahm's title defense just hit turbulence
Now here's where it actually gets interesting. Rahm walked into this week with a genuine chance to lock up a third consecutive Individual Championship outright, just by winning. Instead, he stumbled into four bogeys across five holes and limped in at 1-over 73. That's only his third round over par all season across 37 starts. Tied for 38th isn't a disaster with three rounds left, but it's not the statement he needed either.
DeChambeau sits second in that same points race and, bluntly, doesn't need to beat Rahm this week. He just needs Rahm not to win. "I'm coming out here to win this event this week," DeChambeau said. "I'm coming out here to play the best I can. If he goes and beats me, hat's off. I can't control that. But I'm aware of it."
The Ripper GC lineup shuffle nobody's talking about enough
Ripper GC's collective 19-under wasn't built on Herbert alone, though he did most of the heavy lifting. First-year star Elvis Smylie, who won on his LIV debut in Riyadh, is out injured, replaced by Travis Smyth, who chipped in a tidy 71. Add Marc Leishman's 68 and captain Cameron Smith's 69, and Ripper's sitting four clear of Crushers GC as a team.
"It's great with Trav coming on this week," Herbert said. "It's a good confidence booster for him to see the team on top with him playing in it." Smyth's no stranger to being thrown in cold either, having already filled in once this season for an injured Paul Casey at LIV Korea.
DeChambeau's still chewing over The Open
Ask DeChambeau about last week's Open and you get a man clearly still running the numbers. He finished T14 at Royal Birkdale, six shots behind champion Ryan Fox. "It was a good fight," he said. "Besides the 5th hole, being 3-over on that hole, and then the 11th hole, that's six shots. That's tied for the lead right here. That's two holes and I'm right there with the Claret Jug." Two holes. That's the margin he's carrying into this week, and it clearly hasn't left him.
Why nobody should relax around Herbert this weekend
Dig into Herbert's season and there's a pattern that should genuinely rattle the field. He's 87-under across all rounds this year, but only 4-under collectively in round ones. His danger zone is later, 31-under in round twos, 26-under in each of the final two rounds. In other words, a hot start from Herbert isn't a fluke, it's his most dangerous form showing up early instead of late.
"I think that stat probably points toward how well I finish tournaments rather than how poorly I've started them," Herbert said. His wire-to-wire win at Maaden LIV Golf Virginia opened with rounds of 64 and 63. Sound familiar? This week's already tracking the same way, and the rest of the field should be very aware of that before Friday tees off.