In playoff mode for weeks now, Lucas Glover is using his renewed focus to close in on a second consecutive victory while taking a one-stroke lead into the final round of the St. Jude Championship at Memphis, Tenn.
Glover fired a 4-under-par 66 on Saturday on the TPC Southwind course to reach 14-under 196 for the tournament and maintain his lead at the FedEx Cup playoff opener.
Glover, 43, becomes the first player to hold the 54-hole lead at age 40 or older in the FedExCup Playoffs since Tiger Woods (2018 Tour Championship).
A spot in the Fed Cup playoffs wasn’t even secured for Glover until he won last week’s Wyndham Championship. That moved him into 49th on the FedEx Cup standings, with only the top 70 moving on to Memphis. Glover becomes the first player to hold the 54-hole lead in back-to-back weeks since Patrick Cantlay in 2021.
If he can close out consecutive wins Sunday, Glover would vault to No. 3 in the standings.
Glover has a one-shot advantage on Taylor Moore, who shot a 5-under 65 on Saturday. England’s Tommy Fleetwood (66) is another shot back and alone in third place at 12 under.
Glover mixed four birdies with a bogey over his first six holes of the third round. His bogey 5 came at the sixth hole when he missed the green short and right on his second shot.
“It was scrappy would be how I would describe that day,” Glover said. “Parts of it you could remove the ‘s’. I got a lot out of what I had. Short game bailed me out a lot early, and missed a couple putts I thought I should have made coming in.”
During a steady back nine, Glover birdied the par-4 13th hole thanks to a 176-yard second shot that he put to within 6 feet of the hole and made the putt. He closed the round with five consecutive pars.
“Three months ago if I’d have been mad at 66 or if you told me I’d be mad at 66, I’d say you were crazy,” Glover said. “Splitting hairs, but it was a little bit of smoke and mirrors today, just to be honest.
“But I’m still in a good spot, and I can work on many in a minute and wake up tomorrow in a better frame of mind.”
Moore was 6 under for the day and set to hold the overnight lead with Glover until he had a bogey 5 at No. 18. He found a fairway bunker off the tee on the final hole and could not make a 14-foot putt for par.
“I got off to a good start,” Moore said. “I drove the ball really well the first nine holes, hit some nice iron shots in and got into a good rhythm early, so was really pleased with the start, and overall a really good day.”
Fleetwood also used the word “scrap” to describe his round — seven birdies against three bogeys.
“The course is very difficult,” Fleetwood said. “Once you start missing fairways, the course becomes very tough to score on. But once I got through that patch, I felt like I went through a really good stretch again.”
Max Homa (65) and Jordan Spieth (68) will head into the final round tied for fourth place at 11 under.
A six-way tie for sixth place includes Patrick Cantlay (66), Norway’s Viktor Hovland (65), Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy (68), Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (69) and South Korea’s Tom Kim (69) and Sungjae Im (69).
–Field Level Media
