The Lucas Glover story just keeps getting better, and it leads to one prominent question:
What’s next?
With his sudden-death victory over Patrick Cantlay in the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday in sweat-stained Memphis, Tennessee, Glover became more than the feel-good story that he created a week earlier when he won the Wyndham Championship.
Riding a remarkable transformation on the greens with the broomstick-style putter that he adopted in early June, Glover is now the hottest player in the game and suddenly a central figure in two discussions which he was not part of two weeks ago.
Having jumped to fourth in the FedEx Cup playoff race, Glover has positioned himself to have a legitimate shot at winning the $18 million top prize at the Tour Championship in Atlanta next week.
Glover also has played himself into the Ryder Cup discussion, giving U.S. captain Zach Johnson another option when he fills out his 12-man roster on Aug. 29 for next month’s match in Rome.
On the final nine holes Sunday when he didn’t have his best, Glover kept himself in the mix by holing 51 feet of putts on the 13th and 14th greens at TPC Southwind, turning potential disaster into a 1-over par blip. He briefly surrendered the lead to Cantlay, who shot 64 on Sunday, but a birdie at 16 and another good par save at 17 got Glover to extra holes after they tied at 15-under 265.
Cantlay, attempting to win his fourth playoff event in the past six played, made a critical error when he pulled his tee shot into the water on the first extra hole, the par-4 18th, allowing Glover to win with a two-putt par and earn $3.6 million from the $20 million purse.
“Keep fighting,” Glover said he told himself late in the round. “The closing holes here aren’t easy birdies. They aren’t easy pars under pressure. Stay loose and stay close.
“I said [Saturday] the guns will be coming, and they came. I was just the last man standing this week.”
Dealing with the intense heat that had him soaking his hands in ice water at times, Glover became the first player since Tony Finau in 2022 to win consecutive tournaments.
Outside the top 125 in points earlier this summer, Glover has tied his resurgence to improved putting, altering both his perspective and his performance.
“You work hard no matter whether you’re fighting something or you’re playing great,” said Glover, 43, who has won six times on the PGA Tour, including the 2009 U.S. Open. He has finished T6 or better in six of his last seven events.
“You just work hard,” he said. “You never know when it can turn, and it’s turned pretty quickly for me.”
Two players – Cam Davis and Hideki Matsuyama – played their way into the top 50 to advance to the BMW Championship this week and assure themselves spots in the signature events in 2024. Mackenzie Hughes and Nick Hardy fell out of the top 50 while Patrick Rodgers landed at No. 50.
Ron Green Jr.