Times wires
Sunday, May 8, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Lucas Glover figures he has played more than 100 rounds with Jonathan Byrd, from junior golf when they were teenagers to their years together at Clemson and nearly a decade on the PGA Tour.
The stakes were never as high as they were Sunday in the Wells Fargo Championship.
Glover was never better.
Clinging to a one-shot lead, Glover closed with three pars on the brutal finishing stretch at Quail Hollow, slamming his fist when he made the last from 7 feet for 3-under 69 and what looked to be a sure win at 15-under 273. Then came Byrd, with two pars followed by a shot into 15 feet that he made for birdie on 18 for even 72 to force a playoff.
Glover wound up a winner with par on the first extra hole, ending a drought of 41 tournaments since his U.S. Open win at Bethpage Black in 2009.
"I'm elated," Glover said. "Any time you win, you're pleased. It means you beat everybody. You did what you set out to do on Thursday morning when the bell rang. Against this field and on this golf course and in a tournament of this magnitude, I'm thrilled."
And against one of his best friends? That might have helped. Glover, in his first PGA Tour playoff, felt calm playing against Byrd, who had won his past two tournaments in extra holes.
In the playoff, Glover striped his tee shot down the middle and two-putted from 25 feet.
Byrd, who went from a fairway bunker to the hazard left of the green — just short of the stream — hit a difficult chip 25 by the hole and wound up with bogey.
"If I couldn't win, I couldn't pick anybody else I'd want to win other than Lucas, so I'm very happy for him," Byrd said.
CHAMPIONS: Tom Lehman won the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Ala., for his third victory in seven tour events this year, beating Peter Senior with a par on the second playoff hole.
Senior missed a 5-foot par putt when it lipped out on No. 18. Lehman two-putted from about 20 feet, polishing off his second bogey-free day at the first tour major of the season. They quickly walked over to shake each other's hands in a subdued reaction.