When temperatures in the low 40s Celsius, a five-plus-hour round of golf isn’t going to be pretty. Lucas Glover, who’s seen more than his share of the tour grind in his two decades of professional golf, showed that winning, even when you sweat all the way through your khakis, is still as pretty as the game gets.
Glover won back-to-back tournaments for the first time in his professional career, and while it may not have been the best ball-striking round of his life, his grit along with some incredibly clutch putting earned him a win in the FedEx St Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Glover’s par at the first playoff hole gave him the win over a hard-charging Patrick Cantlay and his final-round 64.
While Glover has been long regarded for his ball-striking, this time it was his putting that saved him. That included a 20-footer par save on the 13th hole and a 30-footer to record an improbable bogey after hitting his tee shot in the water on the par-3 14th hole. On the 17th, Glover rescued par and maintained a tie for the lead with an eight-foot par putt after his approach shot from the rough came up 60 metres short of the pin. For the week, Glover picked up three shots putting versus the field and an additional three shots around the green. On the final day, he was ranked third in Strokes Gained/Putting.
Glover switched to the L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Max mallet long putter at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and turned around his season. Glover was ranked 167th on the FedEx Cup points list before the switch. With the win, he heads to the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs ranked fourth and assured of a spot in the Tour Championship.
In short, sitting pretty.
What Lucas Glover had in the bag at the 2023 FedEx St Jude Championship:
Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV
Driver: Srixon Z785 (Fujikura Ventus Blue 7X), 9.5 degrees
3-wood: Ping G430 Max, 15 degrees
5-wood: Ping G430 Max, 18 degrees
Irons (4): Srixon ZX5 Mk II; (5-PW): Srixon ZX7 Mk II
Wedges: Cleveland RTX 6 (52, 56, 60 degrees)
Putter: L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max
