Lucas Glover following his playoff victory in the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs, at TPC Southwind on August 13, 2023. | Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Some of the biggest names in golf took the time to applaud Lucas Glover following the opening round of the BMW Championship.
Lucas Glover’s two victories over the past two weeks have many PGA Tour stars in awe.
Everybody loves Glover, so seeing the outpouring support for the 2009 U.S. Open Champion is no surprise.
“Yeah, it’s been unbelievable,” Rory McIlroy said of Glover. “It’s great to see. He’s a great guy. You won’t find one person out on tour with a bad thing to say about Lucas. I think everyone has been happy to see him play so well.”
McIlroy played alongside Glover during the first two rounds of the BMW Championship.
“We know he’s got the tools from tee to green,” McIlroy added. “It was just a matter of him figuring out how to get the ball in the hole. Using his long putter, he’s certainly started to figure it out.”
What is impressive about Glover’s victories is that he needed to win. Anything short of a victory at the Wyndham Championship meant his season was over. His win got him into the FedEx Cup playoffs, a goal every PGA Tour player has at the beginning of the season.
“Being able to lock up [a spot] in the Playoffs, that says a lot about the year,” Rickie Fowler said Thursday.
“Or you can do it the other way, Lucas Glover style, win and get in, and then win again and lock up [a spot in the Tour Championship]. It’s been impressive and fun to watch him the last couple of weeks.”
Glover switched to a long putter last season. The move has paid off, especially over the past month, as he went from obscurity to notoriety. His season has completely changed for the better, going from playing in zero majors to perhaps starring in the Ryder Cup.
“I have always been a streaky putter,” Glover admitted Wednesday. “When I putted well, I played well. When I putted poorly, I played okay. But the nervy, yippy stuff didn’t start for three or four years until after the U.S. Open. Did I make them all? No. But it wasn’t because of the yips.”
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Lucas Glover lines up a putt on the 14th green during the first round of the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club on August 17, 2023.
“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,” Champion Golfer of the Year Brian Harman said Thursday.
“To go through what he went through with his putter and to come out the other side, I think about Andy Dufresne [from The Shawshank Redemption], crawling through the river and coming out clean the other side. I’m so proud of him; I’m so happy for him. Gosh, 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.”
Harman and Glover have been close for a long time. Both players resided in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, for years. Glover has since moved from the area, but they used to practice together often.
Other top stars—even those who do not know Glover like Harman does—expressed their support for him too.
“To win that week and then to back it up the next week, winning out here takes a lot of energy to do,” Scottie Scheffler said. “To be able to do it back-to-back weeks with his season on the line is extremely impressive.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
