JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 11, 2021

Lucas Glover

TPC Deere Run

Press Conference

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the winner of the 2021 John Deere Classic, Lucas Glover. Congratulations on your win. Impressive round today, 7-under 64. Good enough to get the job done.

I know it's been a while and you've been working hard to get back to the winner's circle. Just some thoughts on collecting your title at the John Deere Classic.

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, it was great. I had my first start here in 2002, and I just remember loving it then. Any win is a good win, but I think this is my third or fourth TOUR start, so a bit of a -- I lost my train of thought, I'm sorry.

Yeah, it means a lot to win here. Anywhere is a good one, but the people here do such a great job with the event and support the tournament, support us so much. I'm happy to be their champion for a year.

DOUG MILNE: Obviously a big week coming up now. Perhaps it hadn't set in yet, but just your mindset, your feelings heading over the pond?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, yeah, excited. Excited. Hopefully I've got a negative test coming, but we'll see.

Yeah, I mean, it was difficult to make plans, but once we get there, it's one of the greatest events that we have in our sport. Very excited to get over there and compete and get after it.

Q. At what point during that surge of late birdies did it kick in that you're right there with a chance to win, and how did your brain react to that?

LUCAS GLOVER: After 14 I knew it was getting crunch time. I wanted to keep pushing. Too many birdies, too many great players behind me, and scores were just going low.

Just tried to push. Wanted to get it to 20. Push, push, push, and I think that kept me from getting complacent, kept me from getting too nervy, because I knew it was going to take a bunch more under par.

Q. Did you feel more nerves on the golf course or in the 30 minutes after you finished waiting on the boys to finish?

LUCAS GLOVER: 30 minutes after, a hundred percent. Not even close. We're so reactive out there to what's going on, and you're in as much control as you can be in as a golfer because you're hitting the shots, but when you're sitting there waiting you have zero control. As an athlete, that's the worst feeling.

Q. It's been a while since you've been in the winner's circle. I suppose back in '11 and '09 when you won the Open, it felt like there were going to be a lot more behind those. Is this delayed gratification even better?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I don't know if delayed. I think any time you win it's gratifying. I'm also not one to think that -- I've always been a big believer in there's nothing guaranteed in this game. It can be easy one day and be really, really, really hard the next.

Yeah, it's been a difficult 10 years, but I never lost my faith, never lost my drive, never lost the self-belief.

Yeah, it's a great feeling.

Q. Has it felt like a long time coming? Did you feel this one coming a little bit this year?

LUCAS GLOVER: I felt some good golf coming. I didn't know how good.

I think a lot of people, if they're honest, would admit that sometimes it comes from nowhere and comes out of nowhere. I've been playing well and had some good rounds and had some good finishes of late. 63 and a 64 in a week, proved myself right on that, I guess.

Q. Any expectations coming into this week? Did you have a glimmer of what was to come?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I mean, I show up each week with the intention to play good, play well, and try my best to win. When that stops, I'll hang them up, and that will be enough.

Everybody is tied on Thursday morning, and I'm at every event to try to win, whether I'm feeling good or not.

This week things just went my way, and I executed when it mattered.

Q. You talked about the struggles. When did it feel at its lowest ebb, and where did you find the resolve to keep going and bring it back?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I went to the Korn Ferry finals twice, one after an injury and one after playing so bad. Luckily was able to get my card back both times.

You know, still, it was bad as far as being on TOUR, but in the grand scheme of things, I still was a pro golfer and still had a chance to get my job back. You know, that was pretty low, but as far as how I kept going, it's just self-belief and the ability to work hard, trust what you're working on and believe in yourself, and I've always done that.

Q. How does this raise expectations for the rest of the year?

LUCAS GLOVER: It doesn't. I've been out here too long to think about that. Every week is a new week. Every swing is a new swing. Every stroke is a new stroke.

I show up next week in England, and we're all tied on Thursday again. It doesn't matter what you did the week before or the year before or 10 years before. That's a new week.

Q. To start with something positive, 10 years is a long time between wins out here. Did you really ever honestly think you would get back in the winner's circle at this stage of your career?

LUCAS GLOVER: A hundred percent.

Q. Why?

LUCAS GLOVER: I still thought I was good enough and still -- I'm working harder now and more efficiently than I did in my 20s when I was having the most success. I still play 25, 26, 27 events a year and I still can honestly say I can do it. I've never doubted that.

Q. Going to today's round, you had a clean card on the front side. What happened at 11 with the bogey, and did you think that that derailed you? How did that affect the round and then kick you into that strong finish?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, 11 was a bit sloppy, obviously. Middle of the fairway with a pretty straightforward shot and I pulled it a little bit. Medium difficulty up-and-down. I just hit a pretty average chip and then a poor putt.

But walking to 12, I knew there were tons of birdie holes coming up and I was still hitting it nice. Just because I hit one bad one on 11 didn't mean all of a sudden I couldn't hit any more good ones.

It was kind of a refocus moment and then started hitting good shots again.

Q. Were you watching the leaderboard all day?

LUCAS GLOVER: Not all day. A little bit early and then after 14 kind of took a study, and then just tried to tell myself that we need to get this thing to 20, keep the pedal down, get this thing to 20-under.

Guys are going to be making birdies, a lot of good players behind you, just let's go.

I think that mindset kept me from getting complacent, getting too nervy, too watchy on the scoreboards, if you will. I wanted to keep the pedal down and make as many birdies as I could.

Q. You didn't get to 20. Did you think that was going to be problematic?

LUCAS GLOVER: Well, when I walked off 18 I think I was up three at the time, so I think I was pretty happy if I didn't get to 20 and that held up.

Q. We've talked many times about your putting woes. You've tried everything. What did you find this week?

LUCAS GLOVER: Comfort, I guess, and managed to stay calm out there. Made a bunch of good ones and made the short ones when it mattered, and yeah, it was good.

Just got a good routine and good -- yeah, just have a good routine now, and it was good to fall back on it.

Q. Did you draw any inspiration from seeing the likes of Stewart Cink and Brian Gay, other 40-somethings, even Phil at 50, winning tournaments this season?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. Those guys, Brian and Stewart and Phil to an extent are all friends, and it was great to see them win when a lot of people had counted them out. Oh, he's old, he's over the hill, blah, blah, blah. Young guys on the TOUR, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, it was inspiring and great because they're friends of mine, but it was also like, All right, maybe it's not too out of the realm of possibility.

Q. There were some guys who hadn't won before who were playing well but the pressure maybe got to them. How do you think experience helped you today?

LUCAS GLOVER: I think a lot. I think anytime you've won, anytime you've been there, anytime you have anything to fall back on, it's an advantage. There were a lot of guys that had won, a lot of guys that hadn't, like you said.

But yeah, I think just pushing for that number was big for me because I never had a chance to get complacent, get settled for where I was.

Q. You mentioned on the broadcast that this is the first time your kids have seen you win. Were they kind of wanting to see that? Were they giving you a hard time that they hadn't seen you win?

LUCAS GLOVER: No, not at all. They're at the age now where they ask me how I'm doing, what place are you tied for, stuff like that. No, I just thought it was really cool that they got to see it.

Q. If you could call up Dick Harmon today, what would you tell him?

LUCAS GLOVER: We did it again.

Q. What's the logo on your hat there?

LUCAS GLOVER: IH Services. It's my family's business. My grandfather started it in 1955 and still family owned. Industrial Housekeeping is what the IH stands for. It's a cleaning company.

Q. I'm really curious about the routine on the putting. How did you come about that? You sound like it's pretty important.

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, yeah, I started working with a gentleman named Ward Jarvis, who works with several other guys out here, and started with him right around Puerto Rico this year, and we developed a couple of things that I do every time no matter what.

Last week or two weeks ago at home I started taking a practice stroke behind the ball instead of beside it because it helped me with my setup, getting more consistently set up instead of practice stroke behind and then moving in. I seem to aim a little -- trended to the right when I would do that, for whatever reason.

So I started taking a practice stroke right down my line right behind the ball and then just walking in and going.

Q. You mentioned on the telecast that it feels good to prove people wrong and it feels good to prove yourself right. Which one feels better?

LUCAS GLOVER: Always yourself. Always yourself. Every morning and every night you've got to answer to yourself no matter what. No matter what anybody else says good or bad, it's still you, yourself, and your inner peace and what you're telling yourself, what you believe every day.

Q. I wanted to look ahead for a second since you were the 36-hole joint leader if I'm not mistaken at St. George's last time. What do you look forward to about that course, and do you think it's accurate enough to say that you can expect anything there given the way the ball bounces?

LUCAS GLOVER: Agreed on the last part, a hundred percent. It's one of those you just expect to have the unexpected and go with it.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back. I hadn't been there since Clarke's win, so looking forward to it. And always nice to show up somewhere on a high note. So yeah, looking forward to getting there, assuming they let us in.

Q. You obviously handled the weather conditions as well as anybody today. I know when you won the U.S. Open in '09 you had fought a lot of rain that day. Did you have any flashbacks to that or anything?

LUCAS GLOVER: No flashbacks, but I do always have in the back of my mind that I'm a pretty good mudder, if I can call myself that.

I was just saying to some guys out front that the key to a day like today is having a good relationship with your caddie and an understanding. My guy and I have been together 18 years, and he knows when I'm going to hand him the umbrella and I know when he's going to hand it back to me, and it's almost second nature.

We've been through plenty of rainstorms and all that stuff.

Q. I was going to ask you if Coop did anything in particular to help you today, especially down the stretch there.

LUCAS GLOVER: He's just even keel as always. He's just level. Good or bad, he's level, and that's what you want. You don't want somebody out there that gets up and down. You want somebody that's level, good, bad, or ugly.

No, he did a great job keeping the clubs dry, keeping me dry, and just being himself. We had some laughs out there, like always, and when it was go time, he was ready with the number, and it was time.

Q. As you worked your way back through the lull, if we can call it that, did having a U.S. Open on your resume give you confidence, or did at some point it seem like, why can't I play up to this? Was it ever an albatross?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, no, no albatross. That's one of those things they can't ever take from me. Yeah, it's always nice to reflect back on that and say I did it at the highest level, executed at the highest level. It's still in there. It doesn't go anywhere. You've just got to find it.

Like I've said numerous times this evening, I never once lost faith, never once quit believing in myself. Fortunately I understand that this game is hard, and there's going to be struggles. Nobody has ever come through a long career on TOUR and not had a difficult time at some point, whether it's 10 years or 10 weeks. It happens.

That's where the perspective came from and the self-belief. It was just, I know it's in there. I've just got to find it.

Q. What kind of arrangements do you have for the British? Where are you staying? Who's in your buddy group and who are you going to send to the grocery store, that kind of stuff?

LUCAS GLOVER: I don't know the answer to the last one, but unfortunately Coop can't go. He had some passport issues, and with COVID and the immigration office, et cetera, et cetera, he wasn't able -- there's actually quite a few -- not quite a few, but a few guys who had the same issue.

So it's just me, and the guy I'm taking, Michael Sims, who's going to caddie for me. We're going to stay together, and that'll be that.

I think we're having -- luckily having food dropped off every evening from what I understand. I wasn't in charge of that side of it. That's what I've been told. We'll see.

Q. You had high praise for this area. It sounds like you're really comfortable coming back here. Does that affect your golf, the performance on the course when you're in an area you like?

LUCAS GLOVER: I don't think it can hurt. I don't think it -- unfortunately I don't necessarily think it can propel you to make a 50-foot putt or something like that. But just arriving here and being here, there's a sense of comfort. I've always liked it here. I've always liked the people. They're always so gracious and treat us so well, and the volunteers and tournament staff -- just everybody, the whole town, the whole Quad Cities, is just so supportive of this event and so happy we're here and so involved. It's just comforting.

They're pulling for you no matter if you're in the first group or the last group. It's just cool. They do a great job with the event, supporting it. It's an awesome event.

Q. Is it a unique feeling on TOUR when you come here?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, yeah. I said this earlier, and I hope I voiced it correctly, but virtually everywhere else we go there's always something else going on or something else at the same time, whether it be another sport or a concert or something.

But this week in this area, man, this is the Classic. That's what they call it, and you're going. You look at what we had out there today. It was rotten today, and we still had people crawling over this place supporting us, and it was great.

DOUG MILNE: Lucas, congratulations. Best of luck this week and going forward.