Six-time PGA Tour winner Lucas Glover was lounging around his hotel room on Thursday morning when he received a phone call from Tour officials telling him that he had one minute to make it to the tee box to start his opening round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
As usual, Glover – like all PGA Tour players – had received a text message informing him of his tee time, but somehow the 44-year-old had gotten mixed up and thought he was due to tee off much later. Insert jokes about elder statesmen and technology here……
“I just misread my text messages,” Glover told Golf Channel, though he was able to see the funny side of it. “I’m kicking myself but laughing at myself at the same time.”
But every cloud has a silver lining and the tournament’s first alternate, Ryo Hisatsune, was at the ready and took Glover’s place on the tee, immediately birdieing his second hole before eventually shooting +2.
Given the weather that the players faced at TPC Scottsdale, Glover may have secretly been delighted that he could enjoy the warmth and comfort of his hotel room instead, and it’s yet to be confirmed whether he opted to join the rowdy mob for beers around the 16th.
It brought shades of Rory McIlroy arriving in a police car and reaching the first tee just in time to get his Ryder Cup singles match against Keegan Bradley underway back at Medinah in 2012. The then reigning PGA Championship title holder had gotten his time zones mixed up.
McIlroy went on to beat Bradley 2&1, helping the European side to an incredible comeback victory that’s become known as ‘The Miracle at Medinah’, but there is no such feel-good story for Glover who has played just five competitive rounds since making his season debut at The Sentry in Hawaii back in the first week of January.
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