Glover (66) in lead, eyeing a bigger prize
Lucas Glover got enough out of his round Saturday for a 4-under-par 66, giving him a one-shot lead going into the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at Memphis and a chance to lock up a spot in the Tour Championship.
Glover posted a 66 or lower for the sixth time in seven rounds, three of those last week when he won the Wyndham Championship to go from No. 112 in the FedEx Cup standings to well into the top 70 who reached the PGA Tour's postseason.
Taylor Moore, who won his first PGA Tour title this year at the Valspar Championship, bogeyed his last hole for a 65 and was one shot behind.
Glover was at 14-under 196 and while he has a slim lead over Moore, he at least created a little separation. There were 16 players within four shots of the lead at the start of another steamy day at the TPC Southwind. Now, only four players are within three shots.
Tommy Fleetwood had a 66 as he goes after his first win on American soil. He was two behind. Max Homa ran off three straight birdies on the back nine for a 65, and Jordan Spieth had to settle for a 68. They were both three back at 11-under 199.
Rory McIlroy (68) and Patrick Cantlay (66) were among those five shots behind.
Glover, who chipped in for birdie on the opening hole and made an 18-foot birdie putt look easy on the next, had only one wobble. He missed the fifth green to the right in clumpy, wet grass and couldn’t get up and down.
But his expectations are such that he was frustrated when he finished, having missed a 4-foot birdie on the par-5 16th and a missing a sharp-breaking 6-footer for birdie on the last.
That’s the state of his game — a 66 that left him thinking only about what went wrong. He referred to his game as “scrappy” and at times suggested removing the “s.” He later mentioned a round of “smoke and mirrors.”
All that is a product of remarkable form, sparked by his change to a long putter that has revived the career for a 43-year-old former US Open champion.
Glover has shot in the 60s in 20 of his last 21 rounds. He flirted with contention for three straight weeks shortly before winning, and he doubts he would have won without having felt the Sunday nerves in those previous events.
Now his confidence is soaring, and opportunities abound. Glover is No. 49 in the FedEx Cup. The top 50 advance to the BMW Championship next week, but the playoff opener is a chance to secure a spot in the top 30 for the Tour Championship.
Women’s British Open — Lilia Vu moved into position to become the first American this century to win multiple women’s majors in the same year.
She’s got company atop the leaderboard in home favorite Charley Hull.
The final major of the year came to life at Walton Heath thanks to a thirdround collapse from overnight leader Ally Ewing, whose five-shot advantage lasted nine holes before she was swallowed up by a slew of chasers.
First it was Vu, who won the Chevron Championship in April, and then came another American in Angel Yin before Hull made three straight birdies from No. 15 to join the party.
Vu (67) and Hull (68) shared the lead on 9 under par at the end of the round. One shot back was Yin (67), who lost a playoff to Vu at the Chevron, and Hyo Joo Kim (68), and Ewing was two off the lead after shooting 3-over 75 — nine strokes worse than her second round.
The last American woman to win multiple majors in the same season was Juli Inkster in 1999.
LIV — Cameron Smith surged to a fiveshot lead over Phil Mickelson and Dean Burmester after two rounds at Bedminster, N.J.
US Women’s Amateur — A pair of SEC golfers, Latanna Stone of LSU and Megan Schofill of Auburn, advanced to Sunday’s 36-hole finale at Bel-Air country Club in Llos Angeles. On Saturday, Stone beat Rachel Heck, 3 and 2, while Schofill held off Hailey Borja, 2 and 1.