Open champion Brian Harman has leapt to the defence of Lucas Glover after reading an article where the former US Open champion was labelled a 'journeyman'.
Glover's form of late has been sensational – two weeks ago the 43-year-old was 117th in the world, then he won the Wyndham and followed it up at the FedEx St. Jude Championship to move to 30th. In the FedExCup standings he is up to fourth and there's plenty of talk about him making Zach Johnson's Ryder Cup team.
"It's hard for me to put into words how proud and impressed I am with Lucas Glover just because of what he's been through. I read an article the other day that made me very angry. It said journeyman Lucas Glover and I thought, what a ridiculous thing to say. This guy has made I don't know how many Tour Championships, won the US Open. He's won six or seven times now. Lucas Glover is a world beater," explained Harman.
This week Glover will be going for his sixth win, he opened up with a level-par 70 at the BMW Championship, next week he will play in his fifth Tour Championship. Harman took things a step further by likening Glover, and his struggles on the greens, to Tim Robbins' character in Shawshank Redemption.
"To go through what he went through with his putter and to come out the other side, I think about like Andy Dufresne, crawling through the river and coming out clean the other side. I'm so proud of him, I'm so happy for him. My wife and I were watching him win Wyndham and both of us are in tears watching it, and to follow it back up the next week, it's awesome.
"I know what it means to Lucas, I know what it means to his kids. His daughter is there and she's just crying her eyes out. It was just a beautiful scene. We all struggle from time to time, and Lucas with the putter, he struggled. He was talking about putting left-handed."
Harman, who opened up with a five-under 65 to share the lead with Rory McIlroy, also gave a nice insight into Glover's longevity. He joined the PGA Tour in 2004 and gained his first win the following year, the US Open win came at Bethpage Black in 2009.
"I remember when I first moved down to St. Simons, we'd go out and we'd play golf, and it was long before I had a Tour card and I was like, I don't know how I'm ever going to beat this guy. He was so good. He's got such good hands. He was putting it so great. So he goes through that, and like I said, to come out the other side is just unreal."
Harman's co-leader McIlroy was also asked about Glover's meteoric rise over the past fortnight and he was another to sing the American's praises and put any talk of being a journeyman to one side.
"I saw a thing from Data Golf a couple days ago where I think he's like the ninth best ball striker in the ShotLink era from like 2004. We know he's got the tools from tee to green. It was just a matter of him trying to figure out how to get the ball in the hole, and using this long putter, he's certainly started to figure it out.
"You're not going to find one person out on Tour who has a bad thing to say about Lucas. I think everyone has been happy to see him play so well."
