In his 20 years as a professional, Lucas Glover has had a wide range of experiences. He has endured the Sunday pressure to win a major championship and has experienced panic while facing even the most straightforward shots.
However, Glover, 43, maybe playing the best golf of his career right now, in large part because of a new putter that has resolved a problem that has plagued him for ten years. Glover’s victory at the Wyndham Championship last week was preceded by 3 straight 6th place finishes or higher.
He continued his excellent play into the FedExCup Playoffs opening round and now enters the FedEx St. Jude Championship final round with a one-stroke lead. With a victory, Glover would have his first multiple-win season and more victories in his 40s than in his 20s a startling fact given the stellar résumé he built while at Clemson.
Glover’s ability to maintain a positive attitude despite the unpredictable nature of the game is the key to his longevity.
“Nothing is ever as good or as horrible as it first appears to be,” he said.
This way of thinking paid off on Saturday with a round that was a miniature of everything that golf has to offer. Glover had the chance to pull away from the competition thanks to a strong start, but two short misses on the last holes give him only the slimmest of advantages going into Sunday.
After shooting 66 on Saturday at TPC Southwind, Glover is 14 under par. He will begin the final round with a one-shot advantage over Taylor Moore, the Valspar Championship winner this year, and a two-shot advantage over Tommy Fleetwood. Several of the biggest players in the game are still close on the leaderboard.
While Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, and Emiliano Grillo are all within five strokes, Max Homa and Jordan Spieth are three back. One of the TOUR’s most brutal courses awaits them; it has a reputation for recording the highest number of balls played into the water since ShotLink stats were introduced 20 years ago.
It’s a layout that can result in many different scores, but it also plays to Glover’s advantage by rewarding strong ball strikers who can keep their ball dry and safe. He came into this week as perhaps the hottest player on the TOUR after finishing third here a year ago. With a victory on Sunday, he’s predicted to climb up to third in the FedExCup.
“I’m old enough to realize that things can change quickly, so just go with the flow and try not to overthink anything,” he said earlier in the week.
On his first hole on Saturday, Glover chipped in, then on holes Nos. 2 and 4, he made putts from beyond 15 feet. However, he finished the day at just 1 under par after missing putts of 4 feet and 6 feet for birdies on holes 16 and 18, respectively.
“If you had told me I’d be angry at 66 three months ago, I would have thought you were crazy,” he said after Saturday’s round. Glover, who was searching for solutions, was positioned somewhere around 180th in the FedExCup in May. He missed half of his cuts in his first 18 starts of the season, and his best finish was T36.
Glover, who was formerly renowned for his precise iron play, has been battling the yips for the previous ten years. He has the best average approach shot distance to the hole on the TOUR this year, but he was unable to take advantage of his birdie chances.
“Anyone who has ever watched him strikes a golf ball understands that he is unique.” Max Homa said.
Glover, who wasn’t in the field, realized he needed to adjust during the PGA Championship week. Brad Faxon, an eight-time TOUR champion who currently works as a part-time putting coach, had advised him to try the long putter.
“Nothing I tried to do or practiced did anything. I was just fried in the brain,” he said.
The putter, which was created to Adam Scott’s exacting standards, made its premiere for Glover at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.
That “crazy, awful, yippy stroke” was gone, he claimed. The putter was able to win its place in his bag with just that.
Success came soon after. His first top-25 finish of the year came at the RBC Canadian Open in June, where he placed T20. After missing the cut in his subsequent start, he went on a streak of three consecutive sixth-place results or better. The Wyndham Championship was his next victory. Even with a solid finish to the Regular Season, his problems had been so severe that he came at the Wyndham ranked 112th in the FedExCup, far outside the cutoff to qualify for the Playoffs. After winning last week, he moved up to 49th in the standings, but he was still ineligible to compete in the BMW Championship the next week. The top 50 players in the FedExCup standings after Sunday will be invited to Olympia Fields Country Club outside of Chicago for the second Playoff stop the following week.
In addition to increasing Glover’s chances of winning the FedExCup, another victory on Sunday would also support his last-minute Ryder Cup bid.
He competed in the 2009 Presidents Cup after winning the U.S. Open that year, and he also participated in the 2001 Walker Cup as an amateur. He has only ever represented the United States in a single international team competition.
“With that new putter, he’s a new man,” McIlroy said. Sunday’s victory would provide more evidence.
