On Friday, Lucas Glover was upset. By Sunday, he cried, but it definitely wasn’t because he was still upset.
After his second-round 64 moved him into the top-five heading into the weekend, Glover called changes to the PGA Tour’s playoff structure — namely the reduction of the first playoff event’s field from 125 to 70 — “silly.”
But two days later, there was nothing silly about Glover’s play.
He shot 62 Saturday to grab a share of the lead and then finished off his fifth PGA Tour win by shooting 68 to finish at 20 under par and claim the Wyndham Championship.
The win meant Glover had no worries about making the FedEx Cup Playoffs. After entering the week at No. 112 in the standings, the win catapults him to No. 49, even putting him in good position to advance to the BMW Championship and qualify for all of 2024’s Designated events.
The 2009 U.S. Open winner’s two children were the first to greet him on the 18th green after his final putt, with his son, Lucas Jr. exclaiming, “Daddy, you won! Daddy, you won! You won!” He said it was the first time he’d won with his children on hand for the final round.
“I don’t get to see these guys as much as I’ve wanted to because I haven’t been playing that great,” the 43-year-old told CBS’ Amanda Renner. “Maybe I can see more practices and games and be home a little more. I’m too old to be on the road this much. I’ve been busting my hump so I can be with them and be with my wife. I’m so happy.”
It didn’t come easy for Glover, who was locked with Russell Henley for much of the afternoon after 54-hole co-leader Billy Horschel faded with no birdies in the final round until the 18th.
Glover and Henley were locked at 20 under when play was suspended for two hours and three minutes due to inclement weather. When play resumed, Henley briefly grabbed the lead with a birdie at 15 before drawing back-to-back horrible lies on 16 and 17 leading to bogeys.
With his PGA Tour season at serious risk, major winner calls format ‘silly’
Henley bogeyed the 18th as well, allowing Glover to par his way in over the last four holes, even laying up after his ball ricocheted off a cart and back toward the 18th fairway.
“Just never got comfortable, felt a little jittery out there, just never got into a good sync with my swing, felt kind of rushed from the top of my swing, just didn’t do a good job of handling the restart,” Henley said. “I hit a very poor shot on 17 off the tee, but 16, to come back into a divot, that’s a pretty tough break.”
Glover’s victory, his first since the 2021 John Deere Classic, caps a great run of form over the latter half of the summer. Despite missing the cut at last week’s 3M Open, he finished in the top 6 in his three previous starts.
While Glover took care of all his playoff scenarios by winning, the rest of the field was jockeying for position in the PGA Tour’s final regular season event.
Starting his week at 79th in the standings, Justin Thomas nearly played his way into next week’s field, eagling the par-5 15th to briefly hold the 70th spot, but a bogey on the next hole and a change on the leaderboard ahead of him meant he needed birdie at the last to sneak in.
After a miraculous recovery from the trees, Thomas’ pitch for 3 hit the flagstick and bounced out. His T12 finish left him just 9 points short.
Adam Scott also made a furious charge in an effort to maintain his title as one of two players to qualify for every edition of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He birdied four of the last six holes Sunday but his T7 finish left him at No. 72 on the points list.