GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA | Lucas Glover did more than win the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship on Sunday afternoon.
He played his way from outside into the FedEx Cup playoffs as the rest of the 70-player field was finalized with three high-profile players failing to advance to the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week.
The victory at Sedgefield Country Club vaulted Glover from 112th to 49th in the playoff race as he continued a strong late-season surge that coincided with his switch to a broomstick-style putter two months ago at the Memorial.
“It’s only been two years, but it feels like a lot longer,” the 43-year-old Glover said of his fifth tour win and first since the 2021 John Deere Classic.
“It was a struggle for most of the spring, but the putter changed everything for me. Just a complete new mindset. It was fun to go putt and practice and find something new. I guess that’s what my brain needed.”
Glover finished at 20-under 260 and earned $1.368 million from the $7.6 million purse. Russell Henley and Byeong Hun An tied for second at 18-under.
Though Glover entered the week 180th in strokes gained putting, most of the damage was done early in the year. Since changing to the L.A.B. Lab Mezz Max putter, Glover has one win and three top-six finishes in five starts.
While Glover made the big jump, Justin Thomas, Adam Scott and Shane Lowry failed to finish in the top 70, but not before Thomas and Scott pushed the issue on Sunday.
“I did my part. I played the best I could and I fought as hard as I could and shot the lowest I possibly could."
JUSTIN THOMAS
Thomas, who started the week in 79 place, needed a big Sunday and got it with a closing 68 that left him to wait out a rain delay to know whether he was in or out in Memphis, where the playoffs begin this week.
He was inside the line when he eagled the par-5 15th hole, but a bogey on the short 16th created unwanted angst. It left Thomas needing a birdie at the difficult uphill 18th where he hit a sweeping hook approach shot short of the green, then bounced his pitch shot off the flagstick for a closing par that left him on his back then in 71st position when he signed his card.
Needing help from others at the end, Thomas fell one spot short.
“I did my part,” said Thomas, who eventually tied for 12th in the Wyndham. “I played the best I could and I fought as hard as I could and shot the lowest I possibly could. I just have to just hope that somehow it's good enough.”
Thomas had missed five cuts in his previous seven starts before arriving at Sedgefield in need of a good finish. Even though it wasn’t enough, Thomas left Greensboro encouraged.
“I think the biggest thing for me is I was in a great place mentally this week, which I haven't necessarily been in the last couple months, last three, four, five months,” said Thomas, a two-time PGA Championship winner and the 2017 FedEx Cup champion.
“I handled the moment really well. I felt like I obviously would have liked a couple shots, putts, whatever it was here or there, drives over again, but I made the best out of every situation that I had. And just fought as hard as I possibly could. That's kind of what I've done my whole life, my whole career, and I didn't want to stop here.”
Scott, who had never previously missed the playoffs since the 2007 debut, almost played his way in, shooting a final-round 63 that left him in 72nd position. Only Matt Kuchar has made the FedEx Cup playoffs every year.
Ben Griffin finished 70th to be the last player into the playoffs. Austin Eckroat, who started the Wyndham Championship in 70th, fell out of the playoffs after he missed the cut.
Ron Green Jr.