CLEAN & LEAN

WHY PGA TOUR PLAYERS ARE EMBRACING NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE EDGE

- MATTHEW RUDY

THE PUB AT FREDERICA GOLF CLUB ON ST. SIMONS Island, Ga., is a feast for the senses, from the shell-spiked tabby concrete walls to the platters of homemade fried chicken and South Georgia gumbo appearing from the door behind the timber bar where a veteran hand is crushing fresh mint for a tray of Arnold Palmers.

But Lucas Glover is here to work on the Sunday after missing the cut at the Honda Classic, and he will not be distracted. He sits at the corner of the bar with a glass of ice water and a plate with two veggie-burger patties and some sliced avocado in front of him, and he doesn’t even glance at the mound of sauced-up wings being delivered to the member on his left.

It wasn’t always that way.

At 24, Glover was already a PGA Tour winner and a millionaire. And at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, he was blessed with the size and easy athleticism passed down from a major-league-pitcher father and NFL-fullback grandfather—which meant he was already ahead in the genetic sweepstakes.

He ate like it, too.

“I just hammered everything they put in front of me. Two entrees. Steaks. I just ate whatever I wanted and never gave it a second thought,” Glover says. “I was young and active, and my metabolism was crazy fast.”