BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2023

Lucas Glover

Olympia Fields Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Lucas Glover into the interview room. He is coming off of wins the last two weeks on the PGA TOUR, and he is making his 12th start at the BMW Championship. Lucas, congratulations on winning two in a row. Can we get your thoughts on that and preparing for the BMW.

LUCAS GLOVER: Obviously a pretty fun couple of weeks, not to put it too lightly. Been a bit of a whirlwind, as well. But happy to be here. First time at Olympia Fields, and I've been very impressed. Played the back yesterday afternoon, front this morning. The golf course is amazing, as advertised, and been a good week of prep so far.

Q. You're No. 4 in the standings. Just talk a little bit about the next two weeks.

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, from the start of the Greensboro week until now, obviously a big jump. Excited about that, and excited to make it to here and then make it to next week, as well. It's been a few years since I've played at East Lake, so very excited.

Q. What are you reading these days? And I was wondering how much you've felt your story resonating with people who may feel like they're just one thing away from maybe fully expressing their potential or whatnot? You've obviously found something and it's really clicking. Just was wondering sort of the fan reaction to all that.

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, for your first question, "Mad Honey," on my wife's recommendation. Haven't started it yet, but I have it in the room. Probably this afternoon.

Second question, I think it's just kind of the story of being stubborn the right way and persevering. Just one of those typical sports kind of comeback stories, just head down, grind on, and keep at it and keep your goal in your sights.

Gotten a lot of encouragement from the fans the last couple weeks and then the last couple days here.

If it gives one person hope, then it makes me happy, too.

Q. Any comments from fellow players stand out or comments from others stand out?

LUCAS GLOVER: Nothing really stands out, but I think just a lot of guys that I've played with the last several years that unfortunately had to witness some of my difficulties on the greens, they've legitimately said they're happy for me, and it looks like I've kind of overcome it, which feels good.

Matt Wallace at 3M, he just said, after we played the first two rounds together, he said, man, I don't know what you did or how you did it, but he said, you look like a different person. He said, I know you didn't make anything this week, but it looks great. For somebody that's trying to beat my brains in to say that, that meant a lot.

Matt and I aren't even that close. We're acquaintances for the most part. But for somebody to say that that I'm competing against was really cool, and it's just good to hear.

Q. And to say it on a week you missed the cut.

LUCAS GLOVER: Well, yeah. Which fine with me; I putted nice, I just didn't make anything and missed the cut by a shot.

Just hearing that from somebody that saw firsthand my struggles a few years back, first time we'd played together, but yeah, it was definitely not one of those where he was like pushing my buttons or anything. It was legitimate, like heartfelt compliment, and that's how I took it.

Q. When is the last time you got a compliment from somebody?

LUCAS GLOVER: Me? That was probably the last one, the last couple -- no, I don't know. Probably 15 minutes ago somebody told me I looked nice today.

Q. I'm talking about from Matt. When is the last time a player actually complimented you on something, outside of your dress?

LUCAS GLOVER: Well, I was joking.

Yeah, I don't know. Good question.

Q. What do you consider the greater perk that is an opportunity in front of you, winning the FedExCup or being on the Ryder Cup?

LUCAS GLOVER: Potential perk. I'll say the Ryder Cup, as a potential perk. That was a goal from the day I turned pro back in 2001, and we didn't have the FedExCup then. I would probably have to say that.

Q. A lot of talk about your putting, obviously. Just curious, has it always been a foil, the difficulty in your game, going all the way back to the U.S. Open, and it was just better then, or did it creep in and start to get progressively worse? Back then was it something you had to overcome?

LUCAS GLOVER: It wasn't as -- I'd always been a streaky putter. When I putted well, I played well. When I putted poorly, I played okay.

But the nervy, yippy stuff didn't start for three or four years until after the U.S. Open. Did I make them all? No. But it wasn't because of the yips.

It was always probably the weakest part of my game but not to the extent that it has been the last 10 years, had been the last 10 years.

Q. How much would you say you experimented during that time, or did you just try to work --

LUCAS GLOVER: A lot of experimentation for sure with a lot of things. Before this, the most success I had was with the up-the-arm kind of arm lock that Kuchar kind of brought out. He does the opposite now, obviously. But yeah, I'd pretty much tried everything. If you could come up with it in your head, I probably did, too, legitimately.

Then if something didn't work, I'd just go back and grab a short one and I'd I'll just out-practice this thing, and I just couldn't do it.

Q. I'm sure throughout this recent stretch of yours the past few months, your confidence has just been growing and growing, but I'm curious as to how it feels to get these two wins in kind of different circumstances. Sunday at the Wyndham it felt like you were pretty in control of your ball from tee to green, whereas Sunday as St. Jude you kind of had to rely on the scrambling a little bit more. On a course like this for this week, how much more confidence do you have knowing that you can rely on all parts of your game and if you need to rely on a certain aspect more than the other on one day?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, sure. I said it last week, at some point in Memphis, that Sunday at Wyndham felt easy. Not that winning is easy, but ball-striking wise it was just easy. Wherever I was looking, the ball kind of went.

Then last week it was kind of the opposite.

I think that's one of the reasons we practice our short game so much is because you're not always going to hit it where you're looking, and you need something to bail you out sometimes.

That being said, yeah, that was nice to kind of do it both ways, as you said.

But as for a course like this, you've got to have it all because you're going to miss some fairways, so you're going to have to be strategic and possibly chip out, wedge it close, or if you get a decent lie, probably not going to hit it on the green so you'll be around the green, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, a good couple of weeks to get ready for a course like this for sure.

Q. You said when you turned pro, Ryder Cup was one of the pinnacle goals for you. I'm curious, for someone who hasn't been in one, why is it the pinnacle for you? Why does it feel like it's No. 1 priority?

LUCAS GLOVER: I just feel like representing your country as an athlete is the highest honor. I played Canon Cup as a junior, played the Walker Cup as an amateur, and I just think it's the coolest thing, and especially being in an individual sport, to be on a team representing your country, I think it's the highest honor we can have.

Q. How do you combat the mental and physical exhaustion from the last two weeks? What's your mindset this week, and do you find it ironic that in your 40s you have all this experience to draw on mentally but yet not the body of a 20-year old, 20-something that's out there, able to maybe take this better, for lack of a better word?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah. For the first part of your question, Monday was a blessing, but the weather was so bad, so I kind of laid around most of the day, which was needed, and a good part of yesterday morning, too.

Just tried to recover, hydrate and recover, and give myself the best chance to physically be prepared when tomorrow comes around.

Mentally I don't really know. I've been blessed with pretty decent health out here, and I try to take care of myself as smartly as possible so my body doesn't break down. But there's always little nagging stuff.

Physically I'm in a pretty good spot. Just rest as much as possible.

Q. You said you practiced through a bunch of putting issues and you sort of tried everything from a physical standpoint. Have you found any sort of mental strategies or on-course mantras, whatever it may be, that can help you during pressurized putts?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I alluded the last couple weeks to working with Jason Kuhn, who's a former SEAL, and he turned my mindset from kind of the typical breathe through it and stay calm and all that, which was not possible with what I was dealing with, and he basically taught me how to more attack it and wage war against it instead of letting it consume you. I've been able to do a good job of that, and it's been frankly a different mantra almost every week.

Regardless, it's more of an aggressive take on it instead of a fearful take on it.

Q. You mentioned that you've been stubborn in a good kind of way or the best kind of way. Not every late bloomer actually becomes a late bloomer. There's such a thing as a no-bloomer. I was just wondering, you had to have had those doubts at some point, whether it's a score, a round, a tournament or something that you kind of thought, geez, maybe this just isn't going to happen? I'm assuming you had to have had that happen.

LUCAS GLOVER: I can honestly say I never thought I wouldn't win again. I didn't think it would be two in a row. I didn't know if it would be a FedEx event. But I never thought I wouldn't win again.

I've always said, if it gets to that point, it is probably time to hang them up. But I just news if I could figure this putting thing out that I'd be right back where I wanted to be.

Q. Are you playing better now or the same as when you won the U.S. Open?

LUCAS GLOVER: Differently. Differently. Probably more consistently as far as not as many up-and-down tournaments. More consistent. It's almost like miss a cut now it's by a shot instead of eight. Not that I haven't done that, too. But I just think I'm a smarter player now.

Q. You told that interesting story about the walk to the parking lot after the Open qualifier. As you look back, was that a critical point or a turning point or both?

LUCAS GLOVER: I think both. The critical part of it was what I said Tom said to me, was that, yeah, you missed it, but it wasn't a yippy stroke. It was just a stroke, and you missed it. He said, this is going to be a learning process with this thing, and let's keep plugging.

I think I can fairly say both, critical and a turning point.

Then showed up in Canada with -- coming off a 63 and whatever I shot the second round, just because I missed a two-footer didn't take anything away from that. Then just kept working on it in Canada, and best finish in a few months or whatever it was, and then it just kept rolling from there.

Q. There have been a lot of highlights on TV of that putt. Do you watch it?

LUCAS GLOVER: Which one?

Q. Of the qualifier.

LUCAS GLOVER: I don't need to. I did it.

Q. I just wondered if you had seen it.

LUCAS GLOVER: No, I know exactly what it looks like.

Q. Now we all do.

LUCAS GLOVER: Exactly. They wouldn't show the 30-footer I made on 14 last week, would they. (Laughter.)

Q. Your memories or recollections, because you mentioned the walker and the Canon Cup. What about the Presidents Cup at Harding? What do you remember about that?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I did Montreal and San Francisco. I relished the team aspect of it.

The first one in '07, I hadn't been up close that much with the best players at that point, and then by '09 I had, and I just enjoyed being around, listening to them and picking their brain and trying to learn from them.

I remember first couple holes first match with Verplank, and obviously I was nervous, and I think we were playing Weir and Vijay, and whether he was right or wrong, but he just kept repeating that these guys can't beat us. No matter what we do, they can't beat us. They were probably significant better than us on paper, but he just kept pumping us both up and pumping me up, and I remember that pretty distinctly.

But I just really enjoy the team room aspect of those type of events.

Q. (On playing with Verplank).

LUCAS GLOVER: Very. For me, anyway. I just thought he was hilarious.

That dude could get it done in many different ways, and it was always fun to watch.