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Not even the scorching Memphis heat could slow down Lucas Glover. Claiming his second triumph in as many weeks, the 43-year-old reigned supreme at the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship, capturing a playoff victory over past FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay at TPC Southwind.
Ranked 130th in the season-long race just eight competitive rounds ago, Glover has since made massive a move in the FedEx Cup standings after double dipping the last two weeks. Climbing inside the top 50 with his win at the Wyndham Championship, the final regular-season tournament, the former U.S. Open champion now finds himself fourth in the FedEx Cup -- behind only Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy -- with eight competitive rounds to go in his 2023 campaign.
Glover's march to the winner's circle was not without some dramatics this week as inclement weather rolled into Memphis mere moments before his tee time and delayed his first strike by 97 minutes. An inauspicious start saw the smooth-swinging righty miss the first two fairways while leaderboard stalwarts Cantlay, McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland and Max Homa announced their presence.
"[I just kept] fighting," said Glover. "Closing holes here aren't easy birdies and aren't easy pars, really, under pressure. It was just keep fighting. Stay close, stay close. I was fortunate to get into a playoff. I said [Saturday] the guns would be coming, and they came. I was just the last man standing this week."
Glover was unaffected until adversity met him head-on. One birdie and 12 pars courtesy of a strong short-game effort across his first 13 holes kept his head above water and his name out in front by a pair.
However, the wayward swings caught up to him in the form of a water ball on the par-3 14th. With Cantlay up ahead adding a birdie on the 15th, Glover did well to only lose two strokes to his foe when he rolled in a bogey putt from outside 20 feet.
Cantlay, the 2021 FedEx Cup champion, added a birdie on the easy par-5 16th to snatch the lead out of Glover's iced hands for the first time in over 41 hours. Glover came back moments later to match Cantlay before once again summoning a clutch putter when he needed it the most.
Cantlay posted 15 under, and Glover was faced with an 11-foot par putt on 17 to keep pace. As he did all day, Glover converted and improved his scrambling to a perfect 8 of 8 on the round -- a far cry from the typical Glover who peppers greens in regulation with the best of them.
A par on the 72nd set the stage for a playoff at TPC Southwind for the third straight year. Glover did not need any further magic as Cantlay's tee shot found the water lining the left side of the fairway. Once Glover made his par and Cantlay missed his by a hair to the right of the cup, Glover became the first player to win back-to-back tournaments since Tony Finau last summer and the first golfer age 40 or older to do so since Vijay Singh in 2008.
It has truly been a renaissance for the 43-year-old ever since introducing the new putter in his game. Teeing it up in eight tournaments, Glover has snagged not only two trophies but three top-six finishes and a top 20 to boot.
He becomes the first player age 40 or older to win a FedEx Cup Playoffs event since Tiger Woods in 2018, and he will look to join Woods, McIlroy and Dustin Johnson at next week's BMW Championship as the fourth man to win PGA Tour events in three straight weeks since 2000.
Glover is running hotter than summer temperatures across the United States, and Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson may now officially be sweating at the prospect of not selecting him for the team in Rome.
Grades -- Glover: A+ | Cantlay: A
Here is the breakdown of the full leaderboard at the 2023 St. Jude Championship.
T3. Rory McIlroy (-14): A bogey-free 65 was not enough for McIlroy as Cantlay clipped his final-round effort by a crucial stroke. However, it marks yet another contention run for the two-time winner this season and sets the stage for a possible run at FedEx Cup No. 4. Since experiencing a middling spring, McIlroy has been tremendous rattling off eight straight top-10 finishes with a win at the Scottish Open and runners-up at the U.S. Open and now the St. Jude Championship. Grade: A
T5. Jordan Spieth (-11): It was a fun week to watch Spieth, but he never really put together the type of statistical profile you need to win a tournament like this. He needed far too many par-saving putts or ridiculous bunker hole-outs to ever truly get himself into contention to win for the first time in 2023. Though he did play quite clean golf Thursday, Spieth did not finish in the top 50 in approach play this week. And while it's possible to win when you hit it like he did, it's extraordinarily difficult to do when you're staring down most of the top 10 players in the world. Still, there are plenty of positives to take away, especially in a summer in which he has four missed cuts and just one top 10 (a T5 at the Memorial) coming into this week. He seems to be finding it a bit at a good time for him (and for the U.S. Ryder Cup team). Grade: A-
T13. Viktor Hovland (-10): Hovland drove it in the water three times on No. 18 this week, losing more than four strokes to the field on that tee shot alone. That's four strokes that would have put him in or near the lead for most of the final round on Sunday. He went on to lead the field in approach play, however, and it would not be surprising at all if he won next week's BMW Championship and moved to the top of the FedEx Cup standings. Grade: A
T16. Hideki Matsuyama (-9): What an impressive closing kick from Matsuyama, who made six 3s on his second nine and played his last six in 5 under to sneak into the top 50 in the FedEx Cup and make it to the BMW Championship (not to mention into next year's signature events). It was part of a wild weekend for Matsuyama in which he shot a 30, a 40 and a 34 in addition to that 31 to close out his last two rounds. "During the suspended play, I looked and saw what I needed to do on the final three holes. I knew I had to birdie them all," said Matsuyama, who also made a filthy par save at the last in addition to going birdie-eagle-birdie in the previous three holes. "Especially at 18, I looked up and saw I was 47th on the FedExCup list, which made that approach shot really difficult. I'm just happy that I was able to get it up-and-down." Grade: B+
T37. Jon Rahm (-5): The Masters champion entered the week atop the FedEx Cup standings and will leave Memphis with work to do if he is to be in pole position for the Tour Championship. Rahm experienced the worst statistical round of his career off the tee Thursday and did well to battle back to the middle of the field, but the damage from an opening 73 was too great to overcome. The good news is Rahm won a dramatic playoff over Dustin Johnson the last time the PGA Tour traveled to Olympia Fields. Grade: D+
