Lucas Glover’s switch to a long putter continued to pay off as he carded a nine-under-par 63 to lead the Barbasol Championship on Thursday.
Glover fired an eagle and eight birdies against one bogey on the Keene Trace Golf Club course in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and had a one-shot lead over fellow Americans Ryan Armour and Ryan Moore.
South Africans Deon Germishuys and JC Ritchie were both on five under after rounds of 67, with countrymen Jayden Schaper and Louis de Jager shooting 68 and 69 respectively.
It was Glover’s ninth straight round in the 60s – a solid run of form that has seen him finish tied for fourth and tied for sixth in his past two starts.
His improved putting is at “the root of it,” the 2009 US Open winner said.
“I’ve just got confidence in the putting and making some of those midrange putts and very comfortable over the short ones again,” Glover said. “Anytime you’re putting well it takes pressure off the rest of your game. You don’t feel so much pressure to hit it perfect, which is not possible.”
Glover rolled in a 19-foot birdie at the 2nd hole and after a bogey at the 4th birdied five straight.
He didn’t need the putter at 12, where his pitching wedge from 138 yards out spun into the hole for an eagle.
“That’s one of those hole locations where you’ve got a chance to get it really close because you’ve got a backstop behind it,” he said. “You’ve just kind of got to get it online and it’s going to feed to it, and I did that and it just happened to go in.”
Glover said he wasn’t surprised that the 63 was his lowest round since 2021, when he won the most recent of his four PGA titles at the John Deere Classic.
“Getting hot at the right time, and 63 anytime, anywhere is pretty good,” he said.
Glover, ranked 112th, is the highest-ranked player in the field of the event played opposite the Scottish Open, which is sanctioned by both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour.
In addition to a $3.8-million purse the event offers valuable world ranking points and FedEx Cup points for players trying to make the PGA Tour’s playoff series.
The winner also gains a berth in The Open Championship, the final Major of the year that starts at Royal Liverpool at Hoylake on 20 July.
© Agence France-Presse
