A series of cheeky Tweets (and quality golf), gains Lucas Herbert Australian Open invitation

THE last time Lucas Herbert played in the Australian Open it required an 11-hour overnight drive. This year it just took a handful of cheeky tweets from the young Victorian.

Lucas Herbert gained an invitation to the Australian Open

THE last time Lucas Herbert played in the Australian Open it required an 11-hour overnight drive.

This year it just took a handful of tweets.

Herbert was overjoyed ​at the weekend after the 20-year-old was given Golf Australia’s last invitation to join the Australian Open field at Royal Sydney, which starts on Thursday.

It’s a far cry from the last time Herbert squeezed into the Australian Open in 2014.

The then-teenager played superbly in the Australian Masters but a double-bogey on the last meant he missed automatic qualification for the Open by a single shot.

Lucas Herbert finished runner-up in the Queensland Open to push his Australian Open credentials

Unable to get a flight, Herbert and his parents jumped in the car and drove from Melbourne to Sydney and after sleeping on the backseat, the rookie made his 9.30am tee-time for a qualifying tournament at Carnarvon in Lidcombe.

Herbert duly won a spot in the Australian Open, made the cut and finished tied for 23rd.

“You look back it now and you are a celebrity in your own lunchbox for a few weeks,” Herbert said.

“It was a roller coaster of emotions there for 48 hours. A lot of good memories as well.”

Herbert finished off the pace at the NSW Open on Sunday but finishing runner-up at the Queensland Open last month helped convince Golf Australia to extend an invitation on Saturday.

That and some twitter banter.

Im not even playing and I somehow get on the promo... surely if your going to use me like that you can get me a start in maybe 1 of them 😉 https://t.co/YDW1knpJhd

— Lucas Herbert (@lhgolf5) November 11, 2016

Ide prefer an invite please and thanks 😘 https://t.co/zivY9hxSTv

— Lucas Herbert (@lhgolf5) November 11, 2016

Well, must have been my insistance on twitter yesterday, as ive been told @GolfAust have gotten me a start next week in the @AusOpenGolf 👌🏽

— Lucas Herbert (@lhgolf5) November 12, 2016

After seeing himself in a Channel 7 promo for the summer of golf, Herbert traded joking tweets with Golf Australia asking for a spot in the Australian Open.

“I thought it might have been that: my persistence on Twitter,” Hebert said.

“I finished well in Queensland so that obviously helped but no, I am actually pretty surprised, when you look at the reserve list, there are a lot of good players. No it’s a pretty good thrill to get the invite.”

Herbert said his hot run in 2014 had caused him to suffer a drop thereafter, and as he endured a lean 2015, he battled self-doubt.

Herbert finished tied 23rd in the 2014 Australian Open

“I think I tried to ride that wave of success a little bit too much and probably fell into a bit of a form slump there. I was probably being too complacent. I thought I was playing well and probably stopped working as hard as I had been that got me there,” he said.

“It was a tough 18 months there ... and I was having problems with doubting myself and things. But people said if you are working hard you should have no reason to doubt yourself. So I put in the work and I have started to play well and all the good feelings have come back, and some of the scores have come back too.”

Herbert joked he was looking to recapture some of the magic of his 2014 experience, though.

‘I am thinking about sleeping in the car tonight just to get the vibes back,” he said.