Lucas Glover took full advantage of a lucky break on the final hole to claim his fifth PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship, arguably the most emotional of them all.
The 2009 US Open champion has made more starts than anyone at the Wyndham Championship since 2004, a tournament that’s close to home for the 43-year-old, who has many fond memories of playing Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Sunday will live long in the memory, too. After firing a 62 in his third round, Glover posted a two-under-par 68 in the final round, which gave him a two-shot victory over Russell Henley and South Korean Byeong Hun An.
“It’s huge, obviously,” Glover said. “Pretty close to home and had a lot of family here when I was growing up, spent a lot of time here at Sedgefield actually.
“I had a couple uncles that were members and came up here a good bit. Remember the pool and thought it was the best pool ever because it had a high dive, I remember that.”
The 6th August is also a significant date for Glover – it's his grandfather's birthday, and he'd have been 97 yesterday.
“He got me started playing and was my mentor and my hero,” said Glover. “Tried not to think about it too much until the end there. Like to think I had a leg up on everybody today because of that.”
Billy Horschel shared the lead with Glover after three rounds, but the former FedEx Cup champion was out of sorts on Sunday and ended up finishing fourth.
The other challenge for Glover, and those battling it out for the title, was the weather. There was a delay that lasted two hours, and it came when Glover and Henley were tied for the lead at -20 with just four holes to play.
A few hours later, however, it was Glover who had control coming down the 18th, and the title was only going his way when his drive took a lucky bounce off the side of a volunteer's cart.
“I did not know that. I thought somebody was joking, I heard them say that,” said Glover. “Well, to be honest, I would have probably laid it up anyway. Just might have been a harder layup.”
The Wyndham Championship was the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, but now Glover can look forward to the Playoffs, his victory taking him from 112th in the FedEx Cup points standings to number 49 – so it’s next stop Memphis.
“Last time I played Memphis, I played very well, so excited to get back there,” reflected Glover. “Just let this soak in and get my body and my mind right and get back to work Tuesday or Wednesday.”
A number of big names didn’t end the week in the top 70 on the points list to advance to the FedEx St. Jude Championship, including Justin Thomas (71), who missed out by a single stroke, and 2014 FedEx Cup champion, Billy Horschel (90).
Glover, though, moves on with optimism, especially after switching to a new long putter that has seemingly ended a long struggle with the yips.
“100 per cent, 100 per cent,” said Glover, when asked whether he’d been struggling with the debilitating putting ‘disease’.
He added: “I was going to try the long one and if that didn't feel good, I was going to try left-handed. That's how far down the road I was.”
