Monday Scramble: Take Lucas Glover to Rome? Take Phil Mickelson at his word?

Lucas Glover changes the conversation, Phil Mickelson's gambling habits are exposed, Lilia Vu rises again and more in this week's edition of Monday Scramble:

Where this Lucas Glover hot streak ends, it’s hard to say.

With the FedExCup trophy? With a U.S. team uniform in Italy?

Glover seems content to ride it out as long as he can, and why not? In his last six starts he has gone: Fourth, sixth, fifth, missed cut, win, win.

Two months ago, Glover was 167th in FedExCup points and on the verge of forfeiting his playing status. Now, he’s all the way up to fourth, in prime position to possibly unlock the $18 million season-long bonus. The torrid summer run has launched him from 117th in the world to 30th, his highest position in more than a dozen years. And, yes, it has rocketed him in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings too, from 64th two weeks ago to his current spot in 16th.

“If you would have told me this three months ago,” he said, “I’d tell you you’re crazy.”

A college standout at Clemson more than two decades ago, Glover has now won more times in his 40s (three) than his 20s (two), a remarkable transformation that’s a testament to his ball-striking excellence, his ingenuity and – perhaps most notably – his stubbornness. In a losing battle with the putting yips, the 43-year-old thought about taking some time away but never seriously considered quitting. He loves the grind. The competition. The journey. So Glover met his demons head-on, made the switch to the long putter that has revived the careers of Adam Scott, Bernhard Langer, Scott McCarron and others, and now looks like a completely different player, wielding his long wand with confidence.

Once Glover started to dial in his new stroke, here have been his putting stats:

An astounding improvement for a guy who was quite literally among the worst on Tour on the greens, ranked 199th out of 205 players.

At the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Glover holed three clutch putts outside 10 feet on the back nine for par or bogey, keeping him in the hunt when his long game was uncharacteristically iffy.

As reaffirming as his triumph was two weeks ago at the Wyndham, Glover’s victory at the playoff opener solidified his unlikely reemergence among the game’s elite. He defeated postseason king Patrick Cantlay in a playoff, after Cantlay overcooked his tee shot into the pond. He outdueled Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa and Tommy Fleetwood. It was a stout field featuring the top 70 Tour players of the entire season.

All this love for the Glove has led, naturally, to the question: Is the Ryder Cup now on his mind?

“I’ve never made it,” Glover said, “and I want to.”

He was a two-time Presidents Cupper, most recently in 2009, but never was he tabbed for the Ryder Cup. This time around, he said, he’d pick himself. “Playing pretty good golf,” he said, “and I think I’d be pretty good in the team and be a good partner. So, yeah, absolutely, I would.”

But it's not that simple.

Glover wasn’t even on the radar two weeks ago; now he’s the hottest player on the planet. The matches aren’t held immediately after the playoffs; they’re in about 50 days, which, as Glover has shown, is an eternity in golf. And as tidy as he has been in stroke play (21 or his last 22 rounds in the 60s), head-to-head match play, on the road, is an entirely different beast.

Even though Glover could make an ideal partner for Brian Harman, it’d be a highly controversial decision to pick a player who didn’t even participate in a major this year while overlooking the sparkling match-play record of Justin Thomas, the sharpshooting iron play of Collin Morikawa, the firepower of Sam Burns or the long-driving abilities of Tony Finau.

But if Glover summons the energy to go 3-for-3 this week at the BMW or if he wins the FedExCup – if and only if – he deserves the Ryder Cup spot. 

If nothing else, it's another dose of heartburn for captain Zach Johnson.

No stranger to controversy over the past few years, Phil Mickelson found his personal and professional lives intersect last weekend when ex-friend and notorious gambler Billy Walters, in an excerpt from his forthcoming book, detailed how Mickelson gambled more than $1 billion, totaled upwards of $100 million in losses and once attempted to make a six-figure wager on the outcome of the 2012 Ryder Cup.

How Mickelson’s gambling addiction impacted his considerable fortune primarily affects him and his family. Where it gets murky, however, is in some of the other allegations levied by Walters, which should be vetted further by golf’s major bodies.

Walters said that Mickelson once tried make a $400,000 bet that the Americans would win at Medinah in 2012; Walters refused and invoked Pete Rose, whose betting on baseball has kept the legendary hit king out of Cooperstown. Walters added that he didn’t know whether Mickelson eventually made the bet, and for his part, Mickelson said that he didn’t, writing on social media that he wouldn’t “undermine the integrity of the game” without denying that he attempted to. But this is also an addict who, Walters alleges, once made 43 MLB bets in a single day, racking up losses of $143,500. In the throes of addiction, how do we know, for sure, that Mickelson didn’t cross the line and bet on his own sport? Simply because he said so?

As salacious as some of the details are, Walters’ claims may have helped set the backdrop for what has unfolded over the past few years, with Mickelson’s duplicity at the forefront. If it’s true that Mickelson squandered a sizable portion of his fortune, then there was only one way for him to recoup some of that money at his advanced competitive age – by securing a lucrative deal with the Saudi backers of the LIV Golf league. That’d mean that Mickelson didn’t bolt for LIV for the virtuous reasons he suggested – that he was trying to grow the game, that he was tired of the game’s top players being unfairly compensated and wanted to revamp the system. No, if Walters is to be believed, it’s because LIV was the only way to make Mickelson whole, and he was highly motivated to make it work.

Mickelson hasn’t said much on the matter, just that he’d “pass” on that topic, when asked by a reporter. But that won’t cut it for long. These are serious allegations that demand a closer look.

Outside the top 100 in the world just 15 months ago, Lilia Vu is now the top-ranked player on the planet, a meteoric rise for a former college star that culminated Sunday with her second major championship victory this season.

Vu broke away from a crowded leaderboard by matching the low round of the day (67) and sailing to a six-shot victory at the AIG Women’s Open.

The defining player of this major season hasn’t been Nelly Korda or Lydia Ko or even Rose Zhang – it’s been Vu, 25, who became the first American since Juli Inkster in 1999 to win multiple majors in the same season.

Vu was a former star at UCLA who nearly quit the game after a rocky start to her pro career. But she re-learned how to win on the Epson circuit, broke through earlier this year in Thailand and then prevailed in a playoff at the Chevron in April, where she finished with two consecutive birdies and posted another one in overtime. After her major breakout, she hadn't posted a finish better than 35th and entered the year's final major with lowered expectations.

But Vu seized the 54-hole lead and made four birdies in her first 12 holes Sunday, putting to rest any hopes of a Charley Hull victory at home in England.

“It feels surreal to have this kind of Sunday and come out with the win given the past couple of months and struggling with my game,” she said. “I am happy.”

Movin’ On Up: Hideki Matsuyama and Cam Davis. They were the only two guys who played their way into the second playoff event at Olympia Fields, joining the all-important top 50 that keeps them alive in the FedExCup but also locks them into the eight signature events next season. Matsuyama finished with a flourish at TPC Southwind, playing a five-hole stretch on the back nine in 5 under (including an eagle on the 16th) to cement his spot, while Davis tied for sixth to jump from 62nd to 45th. Now ranked 47th, Matsuyama needs to crack the top 30 this week to qualify for the Tour Championship for the 10th consecutive season, the longest active streak. But their inclusion means that two players were bumped out: Mackenzie Hughes, who won the Sanderson Farms last fall, was the odd man out, while Nick Hardy’s third season came to an end just before a possible homecoming in Chicago. His interview after the round is worth watching:

It’s the Wizard, Not the …: Scottie Scheffler. The world No. 1 made a long-overdue putter switch, going to a mallet-style model while trying to awaken a part of the game that ranked 140th on Tour and likely has cost him at least a handful of victories during what has otherwise been a remarkable statistical season. But after an encouraging start, that new putter didn’t make a difference either, as he recorded the third-worst statistical putting round of his career on Saturday and wound up 62nd out of 70 players on the greens. That Scheffler changed putters and still missed 11 putts inside 10 feet suggests that it isn’t the club; he’s mis-hitting putts because of his stroke. He has three days to get that sorted out before Olympia Fields, a U.S. Open-type test that should be right in his wheelhouse.

Staying Hot: Cam Smith. The Australian, who this time a year ago was on the precipice of becoming world No. 1, won for the second time in three LIV appearances, overcoming a sloppy start at Trump Bedminster to set the record for largest margin of victory with a seven-shot blowout. Smith, still ranked ninth in the world despite only playing in the OWGR-recognized majors this year, has now snagged the lead in the $18 million season-long points race with just two regular-season events remaining. He has a five-week break before returning to Chicago, where Smith won a year ago. Mickelson, who was playing in the final group for the first time, made a quintuple-bogey 8 on the front nine and wound up in a tie for ninth, his first top-10 of the year.

The Feud Continues: Rory McIlroy-Mickelson. There has been no love lost because these two mega-stars, with McIlroy landing the latest blow by poking fun at Mickelson’s Ryder Cup allegation: “At least he can bet on the Ryder Cup this year because he won’t be a part of it.” McIlroy seemed quite pleased with himself, even as others on social media whined that he shouldn’t have teased someone who was clearly sick with addiction. But it’s hard to think the topic wasn’t fair game; Mickelson himself last week laughed off a fan comment by saying, “I’m not a gambling man,” and also openly woofed about the stakes in his made-for-YouTube match with Bryson DeChambeau. Can't have it both ways.

Life-Changer: Megan Schofill. The fifth-year Auburn star, previously ranked 21st in the world, made two clutch birdies to close out the morning session and went on to defeat LSU’s Latanna Stone, 4 and 3, to capture the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air. The entire week was a big hit, from the venue to the weather to the competition, which featured gritty play by Stone, who was hobbled by a calf strain in the scheduled 36-hole final, and a deep run by Rachel Heck, the 2021 NCAA player of the year whose career was endangered earlier this year by thoracic outlet syndrome. Kudos to all involved on a fun week – now it's the men's turn this week at Cherry Hills.

ThisCharley Hull. One of the most dynamic players in the women’s game, Hull has come closer than anyone this year, racking up her fourth runner-up finish of the season at the Women’s Open, and her second in a major. Afterward, she said she was already looking ahead to next April: “I really feel like next year will be my time. I feel like I want to start tomorrow with my coach.”  

Batting .500: Harold Varner III. There are few more entertaining interviews than HV3, who has no trouble keeping it real, even if it’s not always popular. In a Q&A with Golfweek, he said that players who remained loyal to the Tour shouldn't be compensated, rewarded, made whole, etc. “I think that’s (expletive),” he said. “I don’t think anyone should. You had the option to go.” On that, we agree – it’s not like the loyalists have been impoverished by the threat; the Tour has responded by boosting purses, with Scottie Scheffler already banking $19.2 million in earnings before a potential $18 million bonus for winning with the FedExCup. But then Varner unleashed this hot take: “I think it’s harder to win $4 million than it is to win a PGA Tour event. When you get in contention out here, it’s like, (expletive), that’s life-changing money. And I play for money.” He’s hardly an expert on the matter, of course, since he was 0-for-191 on Tour. It's also a fact that LIV fields aren't nearly as deep or as strong. But, hey, his candor is still appreciated. We miss that out on Tour.