SILVIS, IL. – Lucas Glover isn’t supposed to be the type of guy who wins the John Deere Classic. That event has been one for young players – like Payne Stewart, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau — to kick-start their careers. They were among the 23 first-time PGA Tour winners among the JDC’s 50 champions.
Glover certainly doesn’t fit that mold. Usually players win the JDC first, then might go on to bigger things. For Glover it was just the opposite. He won the JDC 12 years after he won the U.S. Open.
Even before he was a PGA Tour member Glover had played in the JDC. He made his tournament debut here in 2002.
“I loved it,’’ said Glover. “Virtually everywhere else we go there’s always something else going on at the same time, whether it be another sport or a concert or something. In this area it’s the Classic, and you’re going. It was rotten (weather) today and we still had people crawling all over the place supporting us. It was great.’’
Glover, 41, has been on the PGA Tour since 2004. He won the 2009 U.S. Open at New York’s Bethpage Black on a day similar to Sunday at TPC Deere Run – a day-long drizzle on the heels of heavy overnight rain. Despite that U.S. Open accomplishment Glover hadn’t won on the PGA Tour in 10 years, his last victory coming at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2011.
“It turned into a long week with the weather, but I seem to do all right in the mud,’’ said Glover. “I always thought I could do this again. I just needed to figure out the best way to go about it.’’
Before Glover the JDC had three champions in a row – Bryson DeChambeau, Michael Kim and Dylan Frittelli – who won their first PGA Tour event at TPC Deere Run. Glover’s playing partner in the final round was Adam Schenk, and he best represented this year’s “first-time’’ candidates.
In his three previous seasons on the PGA Tour Schenk had failed to finish in the top three at any tournament. The former Purdue golfer was tied for second, but three strokes behind Glover, when they finished their round but he wound up in a tie for fourth. Kevin Na and Ryan Moore shared runner-up honors, two strokes behind Glover’s winning 19-under-par 265.
Glover, who shot 64 in the final round, and Schenk started six groups in front of the last twosome of third-round leader Sebastian Munoz and Brandon Hagy, who was also a potential first-time winner but wound up tied for 18th.
Munoz was out of it early, with two bogeys in the first three holes, but he rallied to finish a tie for fourth with Schenk, Luke List, Scott Brown.
Glover had his own game plan.
“The focus starting out was aggressive, make as many birdies as possible then see where we are coming to the middle of the back nine if it’s going well,’’ said Glover.
It wasn’t going well – Glover was just 2-under-par for the day after making a bogey at No. 11 – but then everything got better in a hurry. He strung four straight birdies and had five birds in his last seven holes. That put him in control the rest of the way and sent him off Sunday’s flight to the British a good mood.
Glover has been to the British 10 times and missed the cut in five of those. His best finish was a tie for 12th in 2011. The John Deere Classic had four other champions in its 50-year history who also won the U.S. Open — DeChambeau, Jordan Spieth, Steve Jones and Payne Stewart. Four of its other winners won major championships – Johnson, Vijay Singh, David Toms and Dave Stockton.
Doug Ghim, the PGA Tour rookie from Arlington Heights, finished the tournament strong, shooting a 68 that landed him in a tie for 18th place. Steve Stricker who, at age 54, had hoped to become the oldest winner of a PGA Tour event, finished in a tie for 41st place.