BENDIGO golfer Lucas Herbert continues to show why he’s rated one of Australia’s best amateurs.
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The teenager sits in a tie for 10th place at the halfway mark of the Heritage Classic in Melbourne.
Playing in his first professional event, Herbert has fired rounds of 70 and 69 to be five-under par for the tournament, seven shots behind leader David Bransdon.
Bendigo professional golfers Andrew Martin and Kris Mueck both missed the cut.
Martin shot rounds of 76 and 72 to be four-over par, while Mueck fired rounds of 74 and 78 to be eight-over par.
Herbert showed few nerves against the seasoned veterans of the Australian tour.
The cut was made at one-under the card with 54 professionals and two amateurs through to the weekend rounds
He’s the leading amateur in the event and he finished ahead of tour notables Craig Parry, Scott Laycock and Kurt Barnes and recent Australian PGA Championship winner Daniel Popovic.
Herbert mixed six birdies with two bogeys and a double bogey in his opening round.
His second round looked like being a solid 70 or 71 before a brilliant eagle on the par-five ninth, his final hole of the day, catapulted him up the leaderboard.
Shooting a four-under 68 to be 12-under the card, Bransdon will take a three-shot lead into the third round.
“My game is in pretty good shape and I am putting well so, it was a nice solid round,” said Bransdon.
“I didn’t hit it as good as yesterday but four-under is never a bad score.”
“It sounds a bit boring but I can’t control what anyone else does, so I’ll just play and see what happens.
“As soon as you start looking ahead, that’s when bad shots come in, because you’re not focusing totally on what you want to do at the time.”
“You have a job to do out there with each shot and that’s what I am going to do.”
Bradley Hughes had another good round, posting a 4-under 68 to be outright second on 9-under the card.
While a further shot back are New Zealander Gareth Paddison and Victorian Leigh Deagan who each fired 5-under 67 today.
Shooting the score of the day, a six-under 66, was Matthew Griffin and Matthew Millar moving them into the top-10 of the leaderboard. While Leigh McKechnie also shot six-under the card to make the cut on the number.
Herbert will tee off in the fourth-last group of the day in this morning’s final round.
The teenager will tee off at 9.45am alongside Matthew Millar and Ryan Lynch.