Lucas Glover needed to prevent his hands from perspiring, mainly due to the oppressive heat, but possibly also due to the pressure, and he had learned a long-ago trick from not wearing gloves: he did not wear gloves.
On the 17th tee on Sunday, while tied for the lead with Patrick Cantlay, he dipped his hands in the ice water of a cooler for as long as he could bear it before drying them off quickly.
Glover stated, “It literally prevents them from sweating for a short time.”
And it had no effect in cooling him down
Glover won the FedEx St. Jude Championship, his second title in two weeks, by making three large putts – one for bogey – on the back nine, closing with a 1-under 69, and then defeating Cantlay in a playoff with the crucial shot.
In the playoff, his tee shot on the 18th hole discovered dry land. However, Cantlay’s did not.
Glover won with an extra hole to continue an incredible run. Ten days ago, he began the postseason on the PGA Tour ranked 112th in the FedEx Cup and 119th in the world, and he was facing an early end to the season.
He won the Wyndham Championship to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, then won Sunday’s opening event at the TPC Southwind, obtaining his place in the Tour Championship. He is ranked 30th in the world and has earned nearly $5 million in the past two weeks.
Is the Ryder Cup foreseeable? Glover must win next week’s BMW Championship in order to join the team. If not, he felt deserving of selection.
He stated, “I’m playing decent golf, and I think I’d be pretty good in the team room and a good partner.” So yes, I certainly would.
Glover didn’t think this would happen less than three months ago. He assumed he’d always have the yips, so he switched to a long putter, which must now feel like a magic wand.
“If you had told me this three months ago, I would have thought you were crazy,” he told her. “But if you had asked me honestly back then if I thought I could do it, I would have said yes. It’s a terrible way that sports are set up.
“No matter how bad things get, we always believe in ourselves.”
People were most confident on the back nine. Glover stayed tied with Cantlay after hitting a 20-foot par putt on the 13th, a 30-foot bogey putt on the par-3 14th after his tee shot dropped into the water, and a 12-foot par putt on the 17th.
The game was effectively finished with a single shot. Cantlay hit a 3-wood shot that was only off by about a foot. It jumped down the bank and into the water instead. Glover hit his 3-wood into the green and made two putts for a par. Cantlay had to take a penalty drop, and his 20-foot putt for a par score just missed the right edge.
Cantlay said, “I just hooked the ball a little too much off the tee.” “It was a bad shot, and he paid for it.”
Only three players in their 40s have won back-to-back weeks on the PGA Tour in the last 25 years: Kenny Perry (2003) and Vijay Singh, who accomplished it three times, most recently in the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2008.
Work hard whether you’re battling or playing well. No one knows when it will turn into Glover. And it turned quickly for me.”
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The back nine was the toughest battle, with Cantlay, McIlroy, Fleetwood, Spieth, and Homa trying to catch him.
Cantlay started the back nine with a chip-in on the 10th hole and birdied almost every hole after that. Glover seemed to be struggling and went one shot behind. But without those putts, it could have been much worse.
“Got to a point there in the middle of the back nine where it was just kind of to survive and try to give myself as many chances as I could coming in,” Glover said. “That kept us playing.”
For a 65, McIlroy birdied the last hole and tied for third with Fleetwood (68), who had a chance to join the playoff on the 18th.
Before twice hitting in the water in the last four holes, Spieth was close. He shot 70 to tie for sixth with a huge group. With the late blunders, Spieth moved to No. 27 in the FedEx Cup and must earn his way to the Tour Championship next week.
Hideki Matsuyama and Cameron Davis reached the FedEx Cup top 50. That guarantees them a spot in the $20 million main events next year and the BMW Championship next week.
Davis finished with a 67 that had no bogeys. Matsuyama has been a member of the PGA Tour for nine years, reaching the Tour Championship in each of those years.
Going into the final round at TPC Southwind, he was 57th in the FedEx Cup standings and tied for 38th. Although making a birdie on the 15th hole, he was just 2 under for the day. Due to a storm, the flight was then delayed for 90 minutes.
“When I looked at the last three holes, I realized what I had to do. “Matsuyama said,” I knew I had to birdie all of them.
On the par-5 16th hole, he hit a 6-iron to 10 feet for an eagle. On the 17th, he made a birdie putt from 12 feet away. Then, from behind the 18th green, he made a great up-and-down shot that led to a par and a score of 65. Just enough to get him into the top 50 and to Chicago.
