Nice guy Glover punctuates a 10-year drought

"Gosh, he’s a nice guy." Or: "He’s just a really good man."

Or words to that effect.

So, from that standpoint, the 50th JDC probably could not have had a more popular outcome in the worldwide golf community.

Sure, it would have been nice to see Adam Schenk, Brandon Hagy or Luke List claim their first PGA Tour victory ever. Schenk, in particular, was easy to identify with because he struck some shots that were worthy of the most inept weekend duffer and always recovered.

It also would have been nice to see Ryan Moore win. Another nice guy who hasn’t won since the 2016 JDC and who has struggled through back problems this year.

It would have been nice to see Sebastian Munoz hang on after leading the tournament following the first and third rounds.

But it was really, really nice to see a nice guy like Glover battle through some adverse weather conditions to end a 10-year drought without a PGA Tour win.

Glover was once viewed as a rising star. He won the U.S. Open in 2009 and won the Wells Fargo Championship in 2011. Since then, nothing. No Tour wins anyway.

But Glover insisted he was "100%" certain he could do it again someday.

"I still thought I was good enough. … I'm working harder now and more efficiently than I did in my 20s when I was having the most success," he said. "I still play 25, 26, 27 events a year and I still can honestly say I can do it. I've never doubted that."

Although he tends to downplay it, those 10 years had to be rough.

A year after winning Wells Fargo, he was 219th in the FedExCup standings in 2012. He was 185th in 2014.

"I went to the Korn Ferry finals twice, one after an injury and one after playing so bad," he said. "Luckily I was able to get my card back both times."

There was off-the-course stuff, too. In 2018, Glover’s wife was arrested and charged with domestic abuse, although Glover later indicated the incident was misunderstood and overblown.

He has persevered through it all with class and dignity so it had to be gratifying to those who know the 41-year-old to see him raise another trophy Sunday.

"I never once lost faith, never once quit believing in myself," he said. "Fortunately, I understand that this game is hard, and there's going to be struggles. Nobody has ever come through a long career on Tour and not had a difficult time at some point, whether it's 10 years or 10 weeks. It happens.

"That's where the perspective came from and the self-belief. It was just ‘I know it's in there. I've just got to find it.’"

He found it Sunday in some extremely nasty weather conditions. While other players struggled with intermittent showers and unpredictable winds, Glover birdied five of the last seven holes to win fairly easily.

It was a little bit like his U.S. Open triumph 12 years ago when he prevailed in the rain during a Monday finish at Bethpage Black.

"I do always have in the back of my mind that I'm a pretty good mudder, if I can call myself that," Glover said.

"I was just saying to some guys out front that the key to a day like today is having a good relationship with your caddie and an understanding. My guy (Don Cooper) and I have been together 18 years, and he knows when I'm going to hand him the umbrella and I know when he's going to hand it back to me, and it's almost second nature. We've been through plenty of rainstorms and all that stuff."

Glover told Cooper in 2003 that he had a job for life, before they ever participated in their first tournament together.

They’ve stuck by one another through all those ups and downs. It’s what nice guys do.

"He's just even keel as always," Glover said of Cooper’s demeanor Sunday. "He's just level. Good or bad, he's level, and that's what you want. You don't want somebody out there that gets up and down. You want somebody that's level, good, bad or ugly.

"He did a great job keeping the clubs dry, keeping me dry and just being himself. We had some laughs out there, like always, and when it was go time, he was ready with the number, and it was time."

Cooper did one other thing. He deftly evaded reporters seeking to interview him after the final round, deferring the spotlight to the nice guy for whom he works.

"I think any time you win it's gratifying …," Glover admitted. "I've always been a big believer in there's nothing guaranteed in this game. It can be easy one day and be really, really, really hard the next.

"Yeah, it's been a difficult 10 years, but I never lost my faith, never lost my drive, never lost the self-belief."