Weekly PGA Recap: Dream Glover

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

It's hard to illustrate just how seismic the change in journeyman golfer and yip-laden putter Lucas Glover has been over the past couple of months. But we'll try.

After a missed cut at the Travelers Championship in June, Glover sat outside the top 165 in the world rankings. He was so far from the mainstream that he didn't qualify for any of the four majors this year -- and they invite almost everybody to the PGA Championship.

It was then that Glover began to go on a tear -- no, it's more than that, it's been a metamorphosis. He has catapulted himself into the talk of the golf world, into the conversation for the Ryder Cup team and -- after winning for the second week in a row -- into one of the favorites to win the FedEx Cup and maybe even the PGA Tour's Player of the Year award.

Glover followed up his win last week at the Wyndham Championship with a victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, a playoff event featuring the 70 best players on the season, including the three top players in the world in Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.

The FedExCup Standings now look like this:

1. Rahm
2. Scheffler
3. McIlroy
4. Glover

Just like everybody figured, right?

No. 5 is Patrick Cantlay, whom Glover beat in a playoff on Sunday at TPC Southwind. Cantlay's drive on the first extra hole stunningly found the water, and 10 minutes later, Glover had his sixth career title and second in two weeks. Mind you, the 43-year-old had never won twice in a season before, much less twice in two weeks.

At the center of this turnabout has been Glover's newfound ability to putt. Always among the great ball-strikers, he admittedly had the yips and nothing he tried worked. Until about 2-3 months ago. He switched to a long putter. Now, in his last six starts, Glover has tied for fourth at the Rocket Mortgage, for sixth at the John Deere, for fifth at the Barbasol and, after a missed cut at the 3M Open, he won the Wyndham and now the FedEx St. Jude.

"If you would have told me this three months ago, I'd tell you you're crazy," Glover said, answering a reporter's question in his victory news conference. "But at the same time, if you asked me legitimately did I think I was capable, I'd say yes, even then. … I never gave that up, but like middle of May, it was hard to go to the range some days and hard to work. But we pushed through and did it anyway."

At Southwind, Glover hit big putt after big putt – with the likes of Cantlay, McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan Spieth and Max Homa in hot pursuit. There was a 7-footer for par on No. 10, a 20-footer for par on No. 13, a 30-footer for bogey on 14 -- after going in the water -- and an 11-footer for par on No. 17. Each putt bigger than the last, eliciting gasps from the CBS announcer team.

Glover ranked fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. He was such a bad putter that he is now ranked only 160th on the season. Heading into the Rocket Mortgage, he was ranked 187th out of 191 guys.

Okay, so what does all this mean? First of all, there's been a burgeoning if unofficial campaign to get him on the Ryder Cup team. U.S. Captain Zach Johnson is already being forced to take one player he wasn't considering -- Open Championship winner Brian Harman, who will automatically qualify. But Glover is playing the best golf of everyone right now. He's soared to No. 30 in the world rankings. There are still two tournaments left in the season, the BMW Championship followed by the TOUR Championship, and then it's another month till the Ryder Cup in about seven weeks from now. The six automatic qualifiers will be known after the BMW; the six captain's picks will be named the day after the TOUR Championship.

Has Glover already made the team as a captain's pick? Some people think so, or at least that he should have. Only Johnson knows for sure. But what if Glover wins the BMW? At that point, you'd have to think yes, he'd for certain be on the team. Also at that point, he'd be leading the point standings and the favorite to win the FedEx Cup.

It also, incredibly, would thrust him into the conversation for Player of the Year, which up until this point has likely been a two-man race between Scheffler and Rahm.

Glover was asked about the Ryder Cup. Here's how the exchange went with reporters on Sunday evening, per asapsports.com, which transcribes sports interviews:

Q. I know this has happened kind of fast, but in the last five starts, has the Ryder Cup gotten on your mind at all?

GLOVER: About 15 minutes ago.

Q. What did you think?

GLOVER: I think I've never made it and I want to.

Q. I think you'd have to win next week to earn your spot on to the team. If you don't, would you pick you?

GLOVER: Right now, yes. Playing pretty good golf, and I think I'd be pretty good in the team room and be a good partner, so yeah, absolutely I would.

He sounds confident. If you were playing like Lucas Glover is right now, you'd be confident, too.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Patrick Cantlay
While Glover was struggling to save par hole after hole, Cantlay fired the round of the day, a 64, to get into the playoff. At that point, he was a huge favorite. But he put his tee ball on 18 into the water and, while nearly managing to save par with a long putt, he made a blunder you simply cannot make in that situation. With Joe LaCava, Tiger Woods' former caddie, on his bag, Cantlay remains winless. He has nine top-10s in 19 starts this season – great  by most standards – but being winless on the season doesn't work for a top-5 player.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy charged up the leader board on Sunday, again, but his 65 left him a shot out of the playoffs. For what it's worth (not much), McIlroy has been the better player among the Big 3 over the past couple of months.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood had a birdie putt on 18 to tie for the lead. It didn't go in and he wound up in a tie for third. He now has top-10s in five of his past six starts. He's done everything but win. Which has been his whole career on the PGA Tour. Fleetwood now has 22 top-5s on Tour, the most for a non-winner. But he moved from 26th in points to 10th, ensuring a berth in the TOUR Championship.

Jordan Spieth
There were 64s and 65s out on the course on Sunday, but Spieth mustered only an even par-70, leaving him in a seven-way tie for sixth. Yet again, Spieth was in the mix on a Sunday and came up short in what has been a winless season for him. He has two more tries before the season ends – or does he? Spieth is 27th in points, likely good enough to get the East Lake but not a certainty if guys behind him play well.

Max Homa
Homa began the final round inside the top-5 for the first time since February. That's how bad he's been playing. Like Spieth, he shot a 70 and tied for sixth, with two double bogeys on the back nine. 

Sungjae Im
After months of subpar play, Im is finding his form late in the season. He tied for 14th at the Wyndham and now for sixth at the FedEx St. Jude. He sits 28th in points and needs to keep his foot on the gas to ensure a berth in the TOUR Championship.

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler has now gone two tournaments in a row without a top-12. He tied for 31st at TPC Southwind in large part because he now putts like Glover used to. He shot 37 on the back on Sunday and finished the week 62nd in the field in SG: Putting, out of 70 golfers.

Jon Rahm
Rahm followed an opening 73 with three rounds in the 60s but he generated little momentum and tied for 37th. Scheffler's poor week allowed Rahm to remain atop the point standings.

FedExCup Standings

Top 50

The FedEx St. Jude saw 70 players cut to 50 for this week's BMW. Two players moved inside the top-50. Hideki Matsuyama was one of them. He made a late Sunday charge with three birdies and an eagle in the final six holes to tie for 16th on the leaderboard and eke in at No. 47 in the point standings. Cam Davis tied for sixth to also qualify for the BMW. They will both now get into the eight big-money signature events next season. Conversely, Nick Hardy (T49) and Mackenzie Hughes (T58) saw their seasons end. For Hardy, he came within an eyelash for getting a home game next week at Olympia Fields outside Chicago. Hardy is an Illinois native and attended the University of Illinois. Thomas Detry also attended Illinois and he didn't qualify for next week either.

Outide the Top 50

The season ended for 20 guys. For some, the season was a success. For others, only one playoff event is failure. Alex Smalley and Vincent Norrman are two young players who didn't get to the BMW but their seasons were an unqualified success. Norrman will probably finish second in the Rookie of the Year voting behind Eric Cole, whose season continues … Matt Kuchar is now the last remaining golfer to reach every FedEx Cup playoffs (since 2007), but he went about as far as he should have, bowing out after one playoff event. … The biggest name to miss the top-50 out of the FedEx St. Jude field (in other words, not Justin Thomas, etc.) was probably Keith Mitchell. He finished 40th in points last year, and the goal this year was to get into the top-30. Instead, he regressed. Mitchell had only five top-10s in 26 starts and never contended for a title.