OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – It’s not often professional golfers suffer injuries that force them to fall to the ground in pain, but that’s what happened to Lucas Glover during his third round at The Northern Trust on Saturday. With the ball above his feet on a side slope in Glen Oaks Club’s 18th fairway, Glover took his backswing and his right foot slipped, causing him to drop to the turf, where he immediately grabbed his right knee.
After much speculation, and an hour or so of Glover getting treatment, he explained what happened on his approach shot.
“Just trying to hit a hard 5-iron, kind of on a side slope, and (the grass) was a little browned out I guess. I just didn’t have my footing,” he said. “On the downswing my right foot was gone and I just felt a little twinge, but nothing really popped thankfully.”
At the time, Glover didn’t think he could put weight on his knee, so he stayed on the ground and waited for medical attention. Once he got that, and realized he could stand up, there was no way he wasn’t going to finish his round.
“A couple guys tried to put me on a stretcher, and I laughed at them,” the 2009 U.S. Open champ said. “Only way I wasn’t going to finish was if I couldn’t get up.”
Glover, who also has a bad left knee, was diagnosed with a strained patellar tendon in his right knee. While that combination doesn’t sound safe for the golf swing, he plans on teeing it up for Sunday’s final round and getting some extra rest for next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, which doesn’t begin until Friday.