Glover goes down, may not be out
A scary scene played out on the 18th hole at the Northern Trust on Saturday at Glen Oaks in Old Westbury when Lucas Glover crumbled to the ground in pain after hitting an approach shot.
Glover’s right foot slipped out from under him as he swung and he fell awkwardly, hurting his right knee. He was down on the ground for a few moments, holding up play, before a doctor tended to him and he finished out the hole. Glover barely could make it up a set of stairs to scoring afterward.
“I was just trying to hit a hard 5-iron … [and] I guess I just didn’t have my footing all the way,’’ he said. “[On the] down-swing [my] right foot was gone, and just felt a little twinge. Not really a pop, thankfully. I didn’t think I could put weight on it at the time. So [I] just kind of laid down like a sack of pota- toes. I didn’t know whether to move it or not.
“I still had a little pain. I just wanted somebody that knew more than me to tell me what to do. I never meant to cause any problems or that much attention and I hated that it came to that, but I didn’t know and I was kind of scared.’’
Glover spent about 45 minutes in the Player Performance Center trailer on site and was looked at by a doctor who determined there was no tear in a ligament. Glover said there was a “little strain’’ of the patellar tendon and some inflammation.
“It feels pretty good now after ice and [stimulation], but I think according to them overnight will be when it swells up,” he said. “I have a therapy machine in the room that I travel with for ice and compression, so they said use that all night and they don’t see any reason why I can’t play with a little brace [Sunday].’’
Glover, who won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, is 2-over after shooting 72 Saturday.
It’s difficult to believe, but with only a couple tournaments left to play this season Rory McIlroy has not won one. That has left McIlroy, a former No. 1 in the world, searching for his form by accepting baby steps.
After his 1-under 69, McIlroy, who’s even for the tournament, was asked what his goal is for Sunday.
“Just try to shoot my lowest score of the week,’’ he said. “That would be a nice way to sign off if I could shoot 67 or better [Sunday], head to Boston [for the Dell Technologies Championship] feeling a little bit better about myself. It looked like after Day One, I was just battling to get here for the weekend.’’