Lucas Glover parred the primary playoff gap to defeat Patrick Cantlay in a playoff on Sunday to win the St. Jude Championship, sealing his second title in as many weeks within the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff opener.
The 43-year-old American, who received final week in Greensboro simply to qualify for the playoffs, grew to become the primary over-40 winner of consecutive PGA Tour occasions since Fiji’s Vijay Singh in 2008.
“You’re employed exhausting it doesn’t matter what, whether or not you’re preventing one thing otherwise you’re taking part in nice, since you by no means know when it may possibly flip,” Glover mentioned.
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“It has turned in a short time for me and fortuitously I’ve been in an excellent way of thinking to benefit from it.”
Glover received $3,600,000 ($A5.6m), including it to his $1,368,000 cheque from the week earlier than.
In the meantime, Australian Cam Davis jumped from 62nd to forty fifth to qualify for the BMW by ending on 269 after a closing 67.
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By ending strongly, Davis not solely stored his 2023 season alive but additionally secured passage to the eight “signature” occasions in 2024 that may have restricted fields and elevated prize cash.
“I might say the final three Sundays in a row have all been about the identical degree of stress and the identical degree of accomplishment for me,” Davis mentioned after a closing spherical of 3-under 67 left him 4 pictures behind event winner Lucas Glover, who received for a second straight week after Patrick Cantlay discovered the water off the tee within the first gap of their two-man playoff.
“I’ve managed to place actually good clear rounds collectively when the strain has been on to maintain transferring ahead, and it’s actually satisfying to have the ability to know that I’ve obtained a tee time subsequent week, so I can begin wanting ahead to that.
“I’ve turned a extremely sort of up-and-down 12 months into a reasonably optimistic 12 months simply out of three actually good weeks in a row.
“I don‘t know if it seemed prefer it, however yeah, I used to be burdened.
“Hopefully, I can flip it into my finest 12 months but if I’ve one other good week subsequent week.”
Davis, who made his first Presidents Cup group in 2022, began his cost to the playoffs ending in a tie for tenth on the 3M Open, confirmed it with a tie for seventh on the Wyndham Championship and stored it going together with his end in Memphis.
His performances have additionally secured greater than $1m in prize cash for his three weeks of labor to date and lifted his season earnings past $5m.
Day, who was already assured a spot within the second week of the playoffs, completed approach down the leaderboard in a tie for 52nd.
The Aussie success additionally continued with Gabi Ruffels securing her promotion to the LPGA Tour with a 3rd win for the 12 months on the secondary Epson Tour within the US.
Ruffels, who forgot to enter LPGA Q-Faculty earlier this season, received the 4 Winds Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, by 4 pictures.
In the meantime Glover, the 2009 US Open champion, sank a number of dramatic lengthy putts on the again 9 whereas Cantlay, the 2021 playoff champion, charged late to power a playoff, which started on the 18th gap at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.
Cantlay’s tee shot went into water left of the green. He blasted his third onto the inexperienced simply inside 22 toes and simply inside the place Glover’s ball sat after two pictures.
Glover two-putted for par, leaving Cantlay a must-make putt. Cantlay’s ball rolled previous the suitable edge and Glover had the victory.
“I used to be lucky to get right into a playoff,” Glover mentioned. “I mentioned the weapons could be coming and so they got here and I used to be simply final man standing this week.”
Cantlay fired a six-under-par 64 and Glover shot 69 to every end 72 holes on 15-under 265.
Glover received his sixth profession PGA title and have become the primary over-40 playoff winner since Tiger Woods in 2018.
The 70-player showdown superior the highest 50 in season factors to subsequent week’s BMW Championship, from which solely the highest 30 qualify for the Tour Championship in two weeks at Atlanta.
4-time main winner Rory McIlroy, final 12 months’s playoff champion from Northern Eire, fired 65 to share third with England’s Tommy Fleetwood on 266. American Taylor Moore was fifth on 268.
Second-ranked McIlroy would have overtaken world primary Scottie Scheffler with a victory.
Cantlay chipped in at 10 to tug inside two of Glover, who sank a clutch seven-foot pat putt at 11.
Cantlay made an eight-foot birdie putt at 15 to maneuver inside one however Glover answered with a tense 20-foot par putt on the thirteenth.
Glover then despatched his tee shot on the 14th into water, falling right into a share of the lead regardless of salvaging bogey on a 30-foot putt.
Cantlay seized the lead with a birdie on the par-5 sixteenth whereas Glover missed a seven-foot birdie putt at 15.
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Glover’s tap-in birdie at 16 gave him a share of the lead however he made yet one more intense par putt from simply inside 12 toes at 17 and parred 18 to power the playoff.
A storm struck simply earlier than 54-hole chief Glover and Moore have been as a result of tee off, bringing a 97-minute delay earlier than play resumed.
Moore, one adrift to begin, discovered a fairway bunker on the first, a bush approach left off the second tee and water on the fourth on the best way to bogeys to fall again.
Glover birdied the par-5 third, boosting his result in two, the margin he loved on the flip.
– Matsuyama advances –
Glover started the day forty ninth on the factors checklist however simply superior. Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, had three birdies and an eagle within the final six holes to shoot 65 and advance, leaping from 57th to forty seventh in factors.
“All I knew is I needed to make birdies, so I simply put my head down and did the very best I might,” Matsuyama mentioned.
American Nick Hardy and Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes fell out of the highest 50 to overlook out.