Glover Wins Funai

With a final-round 65 and a small collapse by Justin Rose, who bogeyed two of his last three holes after getting to -23, Lucas Glover birdies the final two holes to win the Funai Classic and his first PGA Tour event. Last year’s winner, Ryan Palmer, finishes T3 one back of Vijay Singh’s buddy Tom Pernice, Jr., parring his last five holes.

Still, the question on everyone’s mind is rather simple: who cares? Tiger Woods (-3) and Vijay Singh (-4) missed the cut (-6) and the final round was shown on TV in what amounted to tape-delay mode as players scrambled to complete the fourth round prior to the hurricane-force winds that are sure to batter central Florida later tonight and tomorrow. Cody Thrasher talked about no-name players winning on the PGA Tour, and I’ll agree with his opinion: I don’t care about ’em, and they’re not good for the Tour.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad that Lucas Glover, a 2004 Q-School graduate, has locked up playing privileges. The way he won – by holing a dramatic bunker shot at the 72nd hole (despite being 185th in sand saves at about 40%) – was even great. Even the 40-foot putt he made on the previous hole was good television.

Justin joins ten other first-time winners on the PGA Tour this year, though many could hardly consider themselves “no-namers”: Padraig Harrington, Sean O’Hair, Jason Gore, and Michael Campbell among those.

Ryan Moore closed with a 68 to finish T13, earning $88,000. That’ll give him the equivalent of 113th on the PGA Tour money list, making him the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to go from college to the PGA Tour without going to Q School. The only other players to do so are named Gary Hallberg, Phil Mickelson, and Justin Leonard. You may have heard of two of them…

In “quest for the top 30,” Charles Howell III remains in 30th place, only $2,500 ahead of Jason Bohn, who dropped from 26th to 31st. The biggest mover was Lucas Glover, of course, who moved into 28th from 57th. Geoff Ogilvy moved up 11 from 38th to 27th, bumping Peter Lonard, who falls four from 28th to 32nd.

1     Lucas Glover        -23    68    66    66    65    265
2     Tom Pernice, Jr.    -22    67    62    68    69    266
T3    Ryan Palmer         -21    67    70    66    64    267
T3    Geoff Ogilvy        -21    64    66    68    69    267
T3    Justin Rose         -21    67    68    64    68    267
T3    Harrison Frazar     -21    67    66    66    68    267
T3    Rich Beem           -21    65    69    63    70    267
T8    Brandt Jobe         -20    69    62    70    67    268
T8    Mark Calcavecchia   -20    64    69    65    70    268
T10   Tom Lehman          -19    65    70    69    65    269
T10   Mark Wilson         -19    67    68    63    71    269
T10   Tim Clark           -19    66    65    66    72    269
T13   Heath Slocum        -18    67    69    69    65    270
T13   Ryan Moore          -18    64    71    67    68    270
T15   Charles Howell III  -17    65    68    72    66    271
T15   Pat Perez           -17    64    70    69    68    271
T15   Jeff Sluman         -17    69    66    68    68    271
T15   Robert Damron       -17    65    69    68    69    271
T15   Greg Owen           -17    69    66    66    70    271
T15   Carl Pettersson     -17    66    61    71    73    271