Lucas Glover stays on a roll, leads FedEx St. Jude Championship

 

[August 12, 2023]  After nearly missing the FedEx Cup playoffs altogether, Lucas Glover is making the most of his opportunity.

Glover's bogey-free, 6-under-par 64 on Friday pushed him into the lead at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the three-week playoffs, in Memphis, Tenn.

Glover is 10-under 130 through two rounds, one shot better than first-round leader Jordan Spieth, who had a 68 Friday.

"It's just kind of a carryover from the last few weeks," said Glover, who posted his 20th straight PGA Tour round of par or better. "Just trying not to overcomplicate things and just make good, positive swings and stay aggressive."

The 43-year-old Glover entered last week's regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, ranked No. 112 in the FedEx Cup points standings. His victory Sunday catapulted him to No. 49, punching his ticket to TPC Southwind, where only the top 70 players in the standings qualified.

Glover would leap to No. 3 if the current results were to hold.

Playing the back nine first on Friday, Glover's 32 1/2-foot eagle putt at the par-5 16th hole gave his round a boost. He made three of his four birdies on the front nine and finished the day having hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation.

"I'm old enough to know it can change the other way in a hurry, too," Glover said of his hot form, "so kind of ride the wave and just don't overthink it, keep going, and play until it runs out and then figure it out after that."

Spieth fired a 63 on Thursday but had to navigate a rockier round on Friday. After two bogeys early on the back nine, his first nine, he made four birdies over a seven-hole stretch, culminating with a hole-out birdie from a greenside bunker at the par-3 fourth hole.

But from there, he finished bogey-bogey-birdie-birdie-par.

"I just kind of felt like I was foggy in some of my decisions," Spieth said, citing the high heat and humidity. "... I had a couple of those that -- specifically on No. 12 and No. 15, a couple wedge shots from the fairway that both went long left when I could have taken some spin off and hit it lower.

"But that was kind of it. Everybody is dealing with it. I just got a little lazy with my decisions today."

Five players are tied for third at 8 under: Taylor Moore (66 on Friday), South Koreans Sungjae Im (65) and Tom Kim (68), Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (66) and Argentine Emiliano Grillo (67).

Fleetwood has had several close calls this season but is still looking for his first PGA Tour win, and his first of any kind in North America.

"The first two days I've drove it so well," Fleetwood said. "Felt really comfortable off the tee and put it in play a lot and then today felt like my iron play got better after yesterday.

"Doing so many good things, and sort of consistently putting myself in contention after two or three days."

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Scottie Scheffler, who finished one-two at last year's Tour Championship, have each opened 67-66 to get to 7-under par. Xander Schauffele (6 under), Max Homa (6 under), Collin Morikawa (5 under) and Patrick Cantlay (5 under) are among the other notable players lurking behind.

There is no 36-hole cut at the St. Jude this year for the first time. That helped the likes of Spaniard Jon Rahm, who improved on Thursday's 73 with a 67 Friday to get to even par.

--Field Level Media

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