By Doug Ferguson
Associated Press
CHARLOTTE ó Lucas Glover figures he has played more than 100 rounds with Jonathan Byrd, from junior golf when they were teenagers to their years together at Clemson and nearly a decade on the PGA Tour.
The stakes were never as high as they were Sunday in the Wells Fargo Championship.
Glover was never better.
Clinging to a one-shot lead, Glover closed with three gutsy pars of the brutal finishing stretch at Quail Hollow, slamming his fist when he made the last one from 7 feet for a 3-under 69 and what looked to be a sure win. Then came Byrd, with two great pars of his own, followed by a shot into 15 feet that he made for birdie on the 18th for a 72 to force a playoff.
Glover wound up a winner with a par on the first extra hole, ending a drought of 41 tournaments that stretched nearly two years back to his U.S. Open win at Bethpage Black in 2009.
It was the eighth playoff this year on the PGA Tour, and the third in a row.
ěIím elated,î Glover said. ěAny time you win, youíre pleased. It means you beat everybody. You did what you set out to do on Thursday morning when the bell range. Against this field and on this golf course and in a tournament of this magnitude, Iím thrilled.î
And against one of his best friends?
That might have helped. Glover, in his first PGA Tour playoff, felt a sense of calmness playing against Byrd, who had won his last two tournaments in extra holes. And it showed.
In regulation, Glover hooked his tee shot so far left that it settled under a spectator. He was given a drop, then watched the ball roll down the bank toward the stream as he got ready to hit it. Because he never grounded his club ó that was his plan, given the lie on a side of a steep hill ó he played the next shot without penalty.
ěBetter stance, worse lie,î he said.
He managed a 6-iron just over the green, hit the most difficult chip he had all day to 7 feet and escaped with another par. In the playoff, however, Glover striped his tee shot down the middle and two-putted from 25 feet.
Byrd, who went from a fairway bunker to the hazard left the green ó just short of the stream ó hit a difficult chip 25 by the hole and wound up with a bogey.
ěIím a little disappointed just because youíre here to win,î Byrd said. ěYou love to compete, especially when you get in a playoff. You birdie the last, you feel like, ëHey, this is just going to work out.í
ěIf I couldnít win, I couldnít pick anybody else Iíd want to win other than Lucas, so Iím very happy for him.î
Glover, who finished on 15-under 273, became the first player in the nine-year history of the tournament to post all four rounds in the 60s. He never would have seen this coming.
He has been going through a divorce the past several months ó ěIíll probably leave that over there, if itís all right,î he said, declined to comment on his personal life ó and had only one top 10 over the last year. He missed the cut in his last three events and didnít have much confidence when he showed up at Quail Hollow.
But he figured out Tuesday on the range that the club wasnít square, it felt better Wednesday in the pro-am and off he went. This wasnít the U.S. Open, although the way he was tested over the final hour of a wild day, it felt just as difficult.
Rory Sabbatini, who closed with a 65 and was 13-under 131 on the weekend, wound up alone in third.