At this past week’s 3M Open, Lucas Glover learned what Paul McCartney discovered nearly 60 years ago when he appeared barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road: Take off your shoes in a strange place, and people are bound to talk.
And when enough people talk, they’re bound to lose track of the facts in the process.
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In case you missed the misguided chatter, let’s walk it back.
During Sunday’s final round at TPC Twin Cities, Glover rolled in a birdie putt on the par-4 10th hole, then removed his golf shoes before reaching into the cup to retrieve his ball. The move immediately sparked speculation on Golf Channel and beyond that Glover — an outspoken critic of the AimPoint green-reading method — was making another statement about the controversial technique.
He wasn’t.
On Monday, the former U.S. Open champ took to Instagram to set the record straight.
“Alight, let’s clear this up,” he wrote, before explaining that his impromptu footwear move had nothing to do with AimPoint. Instead, he said, it stemmed from a complaint he’d received about wearing metal spikes.
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Glover has been a metal-spikes guy since he first got on Tour 23 years ago. Sunday’s round, he said, marked the first time he’d been approached about his footwear, mid-competition. More unusual still, he noted, the person who approached him was not a player but an official.
“First of all, it’s not the officials’ place. I wasn’t breaking any rules,” Glover wrote. “Secondly, there were people in the groups in front of me and behind me wearing metal spikes as well.”
Glover described his barefoot stroll as a “demonstration,” but said it had nothing to do with AimPoint. Rather, he explained, it was his way of approaching the hole without scuffing up the turf.
To make sure no one missed the message, Glover kept returning to the same refrain regarding a 2019 rules change regarding spike marks.
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“Have I mentioned that we can tamp them down now?”
Actually, he had.
Glover also said he was puzzled that anyone connected his actions to AimPoint.
“My demonstration yesterday had nothing to do with AimPoint,” he wrote. “I have no idea how anyone came to that conclusion.”
More than anything, though, Glover said he regretted that the episode became a story at all, particularly on a day when 21-year-old Jackson Koivun claimed his first Tour victory.
“My biggest disappointment in all of this is that a small faction are talking about this, a non-issue, instead of Jackson Koivun,” Glover wrote.
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His explanation should put the AimPoint theories to rest. But if Glover wants to avoid another round of similar chatter, he might consider doing what John, George and Ringo did on Abbey Road and keep his shoes on.
The post ‘Shoeless’ Lucas Glover sets the record straight on 3M footwear stunt appeared first on Golf.
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