European Tour Player

Lucas’s grandfather introduced him to the game at age 4 and Lucas enjoyed golf along with Australian Rules Football and cricket in his younger years. At the age of 13 Lucas’s dad first contacted me. At the time, I was the professional at Ballarat Golf Club, a 50 minute drive from where they lived near Bendigo in country Victoria.

From the first lesson, I saw something special in Lucas, and as time passed it became obvious that he saw more importance in building sound fundamentals than lowering his handicap(something I don’t often see in juniors).

Lucas had his own golf swing and what l call his own DNA. I strongly believe in working with an individuals own DNA, and fortunately I did this with Lucas. Instead of trying to create the “model swing”, I shaped his own way into something that could compete on the world stage and be very replicable.

Lucas became an elite amateur and represented Australia in the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy where he finished 2nd in the individual scoring, 3 shots behind Jon Rahm.

Lucas turned professional in late 2015. In 2016 he was runner up in the Queensland Open and in 2017 he was runner up in the NSW Open. He then had two top ten finishes in the Australian Open and the Australian PGA the proceeding weeks.

I think the finish to 2017 gave him the confidence to do what he did in 2018, the year he played his way to a full exemption on the European Tour.

2018 was an incredibly tough but rewarding year for both of us as we spent more than 25 weeks away, often without knowing if or where we might be playing the following week.

With starts in joint-sanctioned European/Australian Tour Events and more European Tour events due to a top 10 finish on the Australian order of merit, Lucas went on to earn enough prize money to gain his full European Tour Card.

As the year progressed, he gained starts with invites and used every opportuniy to record 7 top ten finishes and full exemption in 2019.

We both learned so much being out on Tour (many weeks l was also on the bag). To see the best players in the world applying their trade hammered home to Lucas and I what was involved in being world class.

We have continued to learn and he has worked tirelessly on improving all areas of his game that I see need to be improved. We work on keeping what’s world class at that standard, and improving the areas of his game that we see need refinement.

2019 was a difficult year in many ways, trying to find balance on and off the course. After taking some time off at the end of 2019, we worked tirelessly prior to the start of 2020. The hard work paid off with his first tour win in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and then a strong second place in the New Zealand Open.

Lucas reached a career high OWGR of 64 before COVID-19 shut things down. After taking a little time off, Lucas hit the gym and worked incredibly hard building strength and endurance. We spent about 6 weeks training hard, focussing mainly on pitching, before the restart of the tours again mid year.

In 2021, Lucas has set up a base in Orlando, Florida, and has set his sights on securing a US PGA Tour Card. His two recent PGA Tour Top 20 finishes and his win in the 2021 Irish Open have taken his world ranking to 49 (August 2021) and sees him on track of reaching his goal. 

With Lucas now based in the US, our coaching is predominantly done online, as well as me making a couple of trips to the US when COVID allows.