He’s 50th in the Official World Golf Rankings and won two events in 2023, including a FedEx Cup playoff tournament in Memphis. Yet something tells me the PGA TOUR has not asked Lucas Glover to make any media appearances before Thursday’s opening round of the RSM Classic.
The 2009 U.S. Open winner has strongly opposed the changes voted on this week by the TOUR’s policy board. The board has been meeting to approve several measures, including reducing field sizes and the number of fully exempt player cards beginning in 2026.
Lucas Glover
Glover called these decisions “terrible”.
“And then hiding behind pace of play, I think, challenges our intelligence.” The 2021 John Deere Classic champion added that the TOUR’s role is to do what’s right for the entire membership.
The PGA TOUR’s senior vice president of rules and competition says reducing field sizes will speed up slow play, which Glover and I agree has become more pervasive than ever.
The proposed cure is the subject of Glover’s objection. Glover, a nine-time TOUR winner, believes the current rules just need to be enforced more effectively.
“If I’m in a slow twosome and an official came up and said, ‘You guys are behind, this is not a warning, y’all are on the clock, and if you get a bad time, that’s a shot penalty,’ guess who’s running to their ball? That’s what we need to be doing,” Glover told Golfweek.
Glover is among 39 players in this week’s field who have won on the TOUR in the past two years, 16 of whom have won this season.
They are: Chris Kirk (The Sentry), Jake Knapp (Mexico Open at Vidanta), Austin Eckroat (Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches), Brice Garnett (Puerto Rico Open), Peter Malnati (Valspar Championship), Chris Gotterup (Myrtle Beach Classic), Davis Riley (Charles Schwab Challenge), Davis Thompson (John Deere Classic), Harry Hall (ISCO Championship), Patton Kizzire (Procore Championship), Kevin Yu (Sanderson Farms Championship), Matt McCarty (Black Desert Championship), J.T. Poston (Shriners Children’s Open), Nico Echavarria (Zozo Championship), Austin Eckroat (World Wide Technology Championship), Rafael Campos (Butterfield Bermuda Championship).
Glover joins seven other Major winners in the field: Stewart Cink (The Open Championship); Zach Johnson (Masters, The Open Championship); Davis Love III (PGA Championship); Francesco Molinari (The Open Championship); Webb Simpson (U.S. Open); Brian Harman (The Open Championship); Gary Woodland (U.S. Open).
Defending champion Ludvig Aberg leads a group of seven other prior winners of the RSM Classic who returned to Sea Island this week—Adam Svensson (2022); Robert Streb (2014, 2020); Kevin Kisner (2015), Mackenzie Hughes (2016), Chris Kirk (2013), Austin Cook (2017), Tyler Duncan (2019).
Photo courtesy of RSM Classic and Sea Island Resort
