Brian Harman and his wife were in tears watching Lucas Glover claim his recent victory at the Wyndham Championship.
“I know what it means to Lucas. I know what it means to his kids,” explained Harman at this week’s BMW Championship. “You saw his daughter is there and she’s just crying her eyes out. It was just a beautiful scene.”
“It’s hard for me to put into words how proud and impressed I am with Lucas Glover,” he said, “just because of what he’s been through.”
Glover had been dealing with the yips while putting for the better part of a decade and at times would lose all feeling over a 10-inch putt. He then switched to a long putter with a split-handed grip and has now won the last two PGA Tour events at the Wyndham and last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“It’s been unbelievable. I saw a thing from Data Golf a couple days ago where I think he’s like the ninth best ball striker in the ShotLink era from like 2004,” said Rory McIlroy, Glover’s playing partner for the first two rounds. “We know he’s got the tools from tee to green. It was just a matter of him trying to figure out how to get the ball in the hole, and using this long putter, he’s certainly started to figure it out.”
“I remember when I first moved down to St. Simons, we’d go out and we’d play golf, and it was long before I had a Tour card and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m ever going to beat this guy,’” remembered Harman. “He was so good. He’s got such good hands. He was putting it so great. So he goes through that, and like I said, to come out the other side is just unreal.
“I think all of us — we all struggle from time to time,” said Harman, “and Lucas with the putter, he struggled. It’s like — he was talking about putting left-handed.”
The 43-year-old has solidified his spot in next week’s Tour Championship and is now a contender for a Ryder Cup captain’s pick. For that reason, Harman wants fans, and especially golf media, to put a little respect on Harman’s name.
“Lucas — read an article the other day that made me very angry. It called Lucas Glover a journeyman. It said journeyman Lucas Glover, and I thought, what a ridiculous thing to say,” said Harman. “This guy has made I don’t know how many Tour Championships, won the U.S. Open. He’s won six or seven times now. Lucas Glover is a world-beater.”
Glover has made the Tour Championship 10 times, won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, and yes, has six total wins on Tour. And no, that article did not run on Golfweek.
“To go through what he went through with his putter and to come out the other side, I think about like Andy Dufresne, crawling through the river and coming out clean the other side,” said Harman. “I’m so proud of him, I’m so happy for him.”
“It’s great to see. He’s a great guy,” added McIlroy. “You’re not going to find one person out on Tour that has a bad thing to say about Lucas. I think everyone has been happy to see him play so well.”
Just don’t call the 22-year veteran a journeyman.