Lucas Herbert leads Irish Open after eight-under first round

The 25-year-old started on the back-nine and put on a masterclass with nine birdies in total and just one dropped shot for the day on the par-three 11^th.

He was even-par through five, but that was the start of his turning-point.

"It was a bit of a slow start after the first eight holes," Herbert said after the round.

"I made a nice putt on 15 for birdie and then on 17 I hit it in for an eagle but missed it.

"I was playing a two-ball with Laurie Canter and we both felt we were hitting it quite nice but just couldn't make the putts."

Herbert then made a long-range putt on the par-four 18^th which "sparked things" to make the turn at three-under.

On the front-nine he then made five birdies to finish the round solo on top of the leaderboard with an eight-under 64.

"I played the last nine holes really nice," he said.

"I was trying to get to maybe five or six-under and didn't want to try and attack really hard.

"I was trying to hit the ball in the right spots to give myself looks on the green as I felt maybe five or six-under would be a good day.

"But a few more rolled in and I got to eight-under."

Herbert praised the quality of the course at Mount Juliet Estate in Ireland.

"It's fun to come out and play firm and fast golf courses," he said.

"It's also tight in spots so we're not taking driver everywhere and we need to play to position.

"We were the second group out today and the greens were unbelievable, I can't remember putting on greens this nice."

"It was good to take advantage of it and I'm interested to see how they will be playing tomorrow afternoon."

The next best score for the day was American Johannes Veerman who carded a seven-under, followed by Scot Grant Forrest (-6).

Herbert returns to the course for the second round at 10.40pm AEST tonight.

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