CHARLOTTE, N.C - Figures Lucas Glover, he played more than 100 tours with Jonathan Byrd, golf junior when they were adolescents to their years together at Clemson and almost a decade on the PGA Tour.
The stakes have never were also high that they were Sunday in the Championship of Wells Fargo.
Glover has never been better.
Clinging to a One-Shot, Glover lead closed with three gutsy pars of the brutal finishing section, at Quail Hollow slamming his fist when he made the last time of 7 feet for a 3-under 69 and what appeared to be a sure win. Then came a Byrd, with two major pars on his own initiative, followed by a shooting in 15 feet he did birdie the 18th for a 72 to force a playoff.
Glover wound up a winner with equal on the first extra hole, ending a drought of 41 tournaments that stretched nearly to two years to his US Open win to Bethpage Black in 2009.
It is the eighth game this year on the PGA Tour and the third in a row.
"I am pleased," said Glover. "Any any time you win, you are happy." This means that beat you all the world. You did that you set for Thursday morning when the range of bell. Against this field and on this golf course and a tournament of this magnitude, I am very pleased. ?
And against one of his best friends?
Who could help. Glover, in his first game of PGA Tour, felt a sense of calm play against Byrd, who had won his last two tournaments in extra holes. And it showed.
In the regulations, Glover hooked his tee shot until this left he settled by a spectator. He was given a drop, then watched the ball roll down from the Bank towards the stream as it is ready to strike. Because never, he founded his club - which has been his plan, given the lie on one side of a steep hill - he played the next time without penalty.
"Better off, worse lie," he said.
He managed a 6-iron just over the Green, hit more difficult chip he had all day to 7 feet and escapes with another. In the playoffs, however, Glover struck his tee shot in the middle and two row of 25 feet.
Byrd, who passed a fairway bunker to danger left Green - just below the stream - struck a difficult chip 25 through the hole and wound up with a bogey.
Scott Halleran/Getty ImagesLucas Glover got his first victory since the US Open 2009 after having beaten Jonathan Byrd on the first hole of the playoff at the Wells Fargo Championship."I am just disappointed because you're here to win", said Byrd. "You love to do competition, especially when you get a series. You birdie the last, you feel like, "Hey, this is just going to work.".
"If I couldn't win, I couldn't choose someone else that I do not want to win other than Lucas, so I am very pleased for him."
Glover, who finished 15 - under 273, becomes the first player in the history of nine years of the tournament to display all of the four towers in the 1960s. He would have seen this entry.
He was going through a divorce for several months-"I'll probably leave that there, if it is all right," he said, refused to comment on his personal life - and had only one top 10 last year. He missed the cut in his last three events and had little confidence when it is presented in the quail hollow.
But he figured out Tuesday on the beach that the club was not square, he found better Wednesday in the pro-am and offshore, he went. This was not the US Open, although the way it has been tested in the last hour of a wild day, it was equally difficult.
Rory Sabbatini, who closed with a 65 and 13-under 131 weekend, only wound up third and moves in the top 50 of the world. There now remain for two weeks more to be exempted from the US Open.
Bill Haas had a 70 to finish alone in fourth. Pat Perez, who set a record for the tournament with 26 birdies, had a chance from the outside to win until the closing with three straight bogies to tie for sixth.
1 * Glover-(15)
2 Byrd-(15)
3 Sabbatini (-14)
4 Haas (-13)
5. Na-(12)
* a won the first hole of the play-off
? More scores
"It just proves that I cannot close, so I am fairly confident on this" Perez said, blunt as ever. "You will never win if you play as I did today." It's just terrible. "Embarrassing".
Glover was four strokes behind when he made his move by chipping for birdie on the eighth and categories of an Eagle from 30 feet on the 10th that gave the outright lead it never lost the rest of the road.
Next comes a wild ride - bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie - which brought him to the treacherous finishing. He rescued from well behind the 16th green. It has two row of slightly less than 100 17 feet, hand 6 footer, escaped no. 18 with the greatest of all.
"With a One-Shot lead, these three holes, you do not have to run," Glover said. "" "". A fact I am running the full swing? Who wants to say? But I signed my short game, and I had my wraps. ?
Byrd was on the tee when he heard the roar of peer Glover, knowing that he needed birdie.
Glover predicted all but that he would.
They had joked before the third round that they would be paired Sunday afternoon. They probably did not have this end in mind.
"I said, ' why do we plan on seeing the other tomorrow about 2 - and it is 6," says Glover. "" "". I think that this is perhaps why I knew that he was going to birdie on 18. ?
Sabbatini was among five players at the top of the rankings in a wacky final round, and the action is relentless.
It all started with the South African bold, who had only spoken this week about his argument filled with profanity with Sean O'Hair week last in New Orleans which could lead to a suspension. Sabbatini posted 14-under 274 and it seemed that it might be sufficient for a game as the Glover, Byrd, Haas and kept Perez find disorder and the last five holes.
Byrd seemed to be in control until the closure of nine front with back-to-back bogies, and then do another 14, while his shooting raw right also found the water. But he followed with a birdie on the 15th, then handguns of the trees on 16 and hit his shot of 167 yards to 2 feet for an improbable by and closed with a dramatic birdie.
"I am just disappointed the way I played the rest of the 15 holes earlier in the day," said Byrd.
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