Lucas Glover has not made things easy for himself.
But after watching his lead slip away on what was a sweltering day in Memphis, Glover ended his day perfectly.
Glover parried the first playoff hole at TPC Southwind to defeat Patrick Cantlay and capture the FedEx St. Louis Championship. Jude in the first leg of the FedExCup Playoffs.
The win was the sixth of Glover’s career, and his second in as many weeks. It also catapulted him to fourth place in the FedExCup standings — which is more than 100 points from where it sat just two weeks ago.
“You work hard no matter what, whether you’re fighting something or playing cool, you just work hard because you never know when it might turn around,” Glover said on CBS. “It turned around very quickly for me, and fortunately I’m in a good frame of mind to take advantage of that.”
Glover, who was completely drenched in sweat and even dipped his hands in the water cooler in the final tee box in an attempt to keep cool, took no chances in the playoff. He didn’t need to.
Cantlay, who posted a 6-under 64 in his final over, hit his shot in the water along the left side of the fairway. Glover’s drive was just down the middle, then he hit his approach shot about 22 feet from the cup.
While Cantlay’s approach was identical, it didn’t matter. Glover put in less than a foot from the cup and pressed on par, while Cantlay missed his par by a few inches. This resulted in Glover winning.
Glover, 43, is now the first golfer over 40 to win a FedExCup Playoffs event since Tiger Woods did so in 2018. Glover now has more wins in his 40s than he did in his 20s, and he has now won multiple times In a single season game for the first time in his career.
Glover scores straight wins
Glover only made the postseason thanks to a win at Windham. He was No. 112 in the FedExCup standings entering that week in North Carolina, and his win there catapulted him to No. 49—which was well inside the top 70 who qualified for this week’s event in Memphis.
Glover took a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth after Friday’s round, then awarded a 4-under 66 on Saturday to maintain his lead. He entered Sunday having only made two bogeys through 54 holes as well, and his round on Saturday was the sixth of his last seven which was 66 or better.
However, even with that 66, Glover wasn’t too happy.
“It was bad, that’s what I would describe that day,” Glover said Saturday. You can remove parts of it “S.” I got a lot of what I had. The short game saved me a lot early on, and I missed a couple of putts I thought I should have made.
“But three months ago, if you were angry at 66 or if you told me I would be angry at 66, I would say you’re crazy.”
Glover’s consistency continued on Saturday, though it took a lot of work on his part to keep it going. He birdied once through the first 10 holes of the day, and managed to save par on the other nine holes despite missing six greens in regulation. He was scrambling again, but it was working.
Glover didn’t make his first real mistake until the 14th. After a big save for the previous hole, Glover’s tee plunged into the water on the right side of the green. But Glover minimized the damage again after sinking 30 feet to make his first and only bogey on his ninth home runs all week.
That bogey dropped Glover into second place. Leading by two, Cantlay made consecutive birdies on the 15th and 16th to take the singles lead for the first time.
Despite this, Glover tapped into a birdie on the 16th to regain a share of the lead and force an eventual final run.
“No, it was just keep fighting, keep fighting,” Glover said when asked about his thinking. “Close the holes here are not easy birdies, and it’s not very easy to get pressured, so it was just to keep fighting, stay close, stay close, and I was lucky to make a playoff. You said yesterday the guns would be coming and they came.
“I was the last man standing this week.”
Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood finished third on 14-under, and Taylor Moore finished fifth on 12-under for the week.
Lucas Glover jumps to fourth place in the FedExCup
The top of the FedExCup standings remains largely unchanged after the conclusion of the FedEx St. Jude, though, makes Glover a huge leap.
Glover’s win moved him up 45 places to fourth in the standings. Although he’s still nearly 500 points behind John Rahm in pole position, Glover’s rise is stunning – and puts him in a great position heading into next week’s BMW Championship.
The Ram, which has four wins this season, entered the playoffs leading in the FedExCup standings. He finished in T37 on Sunday after a final round of 68, which brought him to 5-under for the week.
Scotty Scheffler started the week in second place in the standings, holding on to his position despite a par 70 on Sunday — which he only fell to after making two bogeys and a double on the final three holes. This dropped him to 6s a week and to T31.
McIlroy, who entered the week in third place, gave a card of 65 on Sunday to book his spot. Cantlay jumped eight places to fifth.
The top 50 in the FedExCup standings will now advance to next week’s BMW Championship, which marks the second of three events this postseason. The Top 30 after the next Sunday then move on to the Tour Championship.
