How could that be?
Doesn't make any sense, does it?
So okay, 2010 wasn't the banner year for Glover like 2009 when he beat Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ricky Barnes down the stretch at Bethpage Black to win that elusive first major that most golfers, even better known ones like Sergio Garcia or Lee Westwood, may never win.
Walking away from the game to perhaps pursue something bigger in life than an athlete competing for fame and glory on a golf course may make sense for Glover from a few perspectives.
At No. 73 on the all-time career list with $13,084,546 in earnings, at age 31 he has made more than what ten average Americans would make in a lifetime. How much money do you need to follow your passion in life if it is no longer golf?
Lucas married his high school and college sweetheart Jennifer back in 2005. First comes love, then comes marriage and then comes a baby in a baby carriage?
Maybe they want to raise a family in a more conventional manner than being on tour for half the year or more?
Could the thrill of playing competitive golf be gone? With his short game and confidence plummeting in 2010, feeling like that would be understandable.
What mountain is left to climb in professional golf when you have won the Open Championship of your country?
Glover is not your typical sports superstar either.
He reads books, books without pictures in them.
He's a thinker, an introspective sort of guy
Truly a southern gentleman from South Carolina he loves everything New York especially the Yankees, Giants and Seinfeld.
"I don't think (Bill) Parcells coaches in the fourth (quarter) without knowing what the score is. I knew what was going on. I just kept trying to make birdies. (Watching the leader board) didn't change anything,” said the quiet one trying to keep pace at one of those birdie-fest golfing events on the PGA TOUR.
Glover reduced his playing schedule in 2010 and is not a worldwide golf trotter. Playing three fewer events than ever on the PGA TOUR, the two-time champion only went overseas for the Open at St. Andrews and the customary Scottish Open the week prior.
The lady golfers have made a strong statement about priorities in life with Annika Sorenstam walking away from the game at the end of the 2008 LPGA season followed by Lorena Ochoa in early 2010.
Granted, Sorenstam is the all-time career money earner with over $22 million in 303 LPGA events.
But, Ochoa played in only 181 LPGA events, less than the 201 Glover has competed in on the PGA TOUR.
Who knows maybe "G. Lover," as he revealed himself to be on the David Letterman Show after his Open win, wants to be a stay-at-home dad and support Jennifer in her career?
The world has changed a great deal since the Great Recession in the late 2000s.
The golf world has changed a great deal since the car crash of Tiger Woods that Thanksgiving night in 2008. Maybe fame and fortune is not what it used to be with respect to having a personal life to live as one pleases?
Who knows what to expect?
A male professional golfer walking away from the game for all the right reasons is not that far off in the world of golf.
Remember that is exactly what Byron Nelson did at age 34. His reason to play golf was simple—to earn enough money to buy a ranch in Roanoke, Texas and that is exactly what he did.
And who can say his life isn't the epitome of life on this earth.
Can there be no greater litmus test for a man's worth than having your widow write a book to share with the world the greatness of the man and the gift of their love together as Peggy Nelson has done?
If Glover decides to walk away from the game it would be a shock but not totally out of character for someone who has kept the world a humorous arm's length away.
When asked for a comment about the passing of Michael Jackson, another music great to leave us all too soon, he responded with a question of his own, "Elvis is dead?"
We won't know for sure until late January as Glover usually doesn't put a tee in the ground on the PGA TOUR until the Bob Hope Classic in the California desert. Unless of course he goes out and wins the U.S. Open the year before, then his year starts in Hawaii.
Who knows what to expect from a guy whose only Nationwide Tour victory came at the 2003 Gila River Classic at Wild Horse Pass Resort?
Parcels won two Super Bowl rings with the Giants; will Glover give himself the opportunity to win a second major?
Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer as well as a Broadcast Assistant for The Golf Channel and CBS Sports. He spends time on all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.
Reistetter resides in Pont Vedra Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame and pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to AndyReistetter@gmail.com
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