Poston has been on fire since missing back-to-back cuts at the U.S. Open and Travelers Championship in June.
LAS VEGAS — J.T. Poston continues to grow, as a golfer and a fledgling facial hair connoisseur.
The newly mustachioed Poston continued to play great golf during the opening round of the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin on Thursday, all part of a fun stretch for the Western Carolina product.
Poston, who has been on fire since missing back-to-back cuts at the U.S. Open and Travelers Championship in June, was sporting a stiff and shaggy upper lip as he went 4 under on the day’s final four holes, including an eagle on the ninth hole, to post an 8-under 63 that had him near the top of the leaderboard.
He’s hoping to keep the momentum of four top-10 finishes in his last seven events, not to mention the new facial hair, as the week progresses.
“Just something I started having fun with in the off-season, knowing I was going to be in my own home and not out in public too much, and just decided to keep it,” Poston said of the mustache. “We’re just having fun with it for now, but I don’t know if it’s going to be a permanent thing.”
Beau Hossler has found his game over his last six starts.
Although many fans are still suffering from a Ryder Cup hangover, the PGA Tour returns to action this week in Jackson, Mississippi, for the Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson.
The field is, well, let’s say not the strongest, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to win a little cash over the weekend.
European Ryder Cupper Ludvig Aberg will be teeing it up come Thursday, as will Emiliano Grillo, Keith Mitchell, Beau Hossler and Davis Riley.
One of the betting favorites is Eric Cole, who finished solo fourth in his last start at the Fortinet Championship in Napa.
Golf course
The CC of Jackson | Par 72 | 7,461 yards
The 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship trophy sits at the 9th green during the second round at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi.
Coming into the week at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course, Beau Hossler sat 73rd in the FedEx Cup standings.
With the new rules, only the top 70 are guaranteed spots in the Playoffs. Counting this week, there’s only three events left for players like Hossler to lock up their spots in the field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
After the first round of the 2023 Barracuda Championship, Hossler is doing his best to make sure he’s well inside the cut line.
Hossler, in a Modified Stableford scoring format, is +17 after the first round in Truckee, California, and sits on top of the leaderboard. The highlight of his day came on the par-3 third, when he recorded an ace for the first time in his Tour career.
“I was kind of in between clubs,” Hossler said. “I think it was like 211, but at altitude it’s playing like 190. I hit 7-iron and it landed in a good spot and it went in. It looked like it was the only hole on Tour this year that had no camera.”
In addition to his ace, Hossler also made eagle on the par-5 sixth. Two holes, +10 (as eagles are worth five points) on the scorecard and a first-round lead.
He shot 7-under 64 in stroke play with four birdies (worth two points each), the two eagles and a lone bogey (golfers lose a point for bogeys). Hossler hasn’t won in his Tour career but does have two runner-up finishes.
“My game feels probably the best it’s felt in years right now, which is good,” Hossler said. “Maybe the results haven’t quite been there the last few weeks, but I feel like I’m working on some good stuff with my golf swing. Starting to see some a lot better iron play the last probably two weeks. So, hopefully, I can keep doing that and get the putter hot.”
Alexander Levy sits second after the morning wave at +16. Carson Young and Patrick Rodgers are at +15. The Barracuda is the lone event on the Tour schedule to use the Modified Stableford scoring system.
Here are takeaways from the third round in Louisiana.
AVONDALE, La. — Beau Hossler and Wyndham Clark have achieved all sorts of accolades as golfers from qualifying for the U.S. Open as a teenager for Hossler and being part of a NCAA national championship team for Clark. Both have been successful at maintaining their PGA Tour privileges, but a win has been elusive so far for both of them.
That could change tomorrow in one fell swoop as they have teamed up to shoot 26-under 190 and claim a one-stroke lead over the team of Sungjae Im and Keith Mitchell heading into the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Hossler is 0-for-4 in converting 54-hole leads and Clark is 0-for-1. Could having a partner be the difference in finding their way to the winner’s circle?
“Sometimes when you’re alone, it feels like you’re out on an island. When the momentum gets going bad, when you’re on your own, sometimes it’s tough to turn that,” Clark said. “With a teammate, you you can kind of feed off each other and really not allow that momentum to get going in the wrong direction. So I hope tomorrow we’re light and loose like we’ve been all three days.”
On a picture-perfect Saturday in the Bayou, Hossler and Clark each chipped in five birdies in the four-ball, or best-ball, format and posted 10-under 62 at TPC Louisiana, which tied for the low round of the day. Hossler made a few birdies from inside 10 feet and Clark connected from 21 feet at the third and 26 feet at No. 12.
“That’s a tough hole, and we kind of snagged one,” Clark said. “That was a huge momentum for the back nine.”
Clark and Hossler have held at least a share of the lead after each round this week.
On Sunday, the format switches back to foursomes, or alternate shot, which defending champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele were able to exploit to the tune of shooting a remarkable 9-under 63 on Friday. However, they are only a combined 11-under for two rounds of best-ball, settling for 6-under 66 in the third round. Cantlay made just one birdie on the day. They will start six back at 20-under and T-10, and likely will need another special round of 63 or less – and some help – to have a chance to defend.
The final round presents a great opportunity for the 29-year-old Clark and the 28-year-old Hossler — not to mention several other contending team where one or both partners is seeking a maiden victory — to break thorough for the first time.
“I think the more opportunities you get, the more comfortable you get, and hopefully we can lean on that tomorrow,” Hossler said.
“If the momentum goes in our direction, I hope we just keep riding it,” Clark added.
Here are four more things to know from the third round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Beau Hossler and Wyndham Clark have known each other since they were 10.
AVONDALE, La. — Beau Hossler and Wyndham Clark have known each other since they were 10 years old, but that doesn’t mean their partnership was years in the making.
It turns out neither player had a partner lined up for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans when they were paired together for the first two rounds of the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles.
“We kind of were talking it through, and by the end of the first two days, we were like, all right, let’s play together,” Hossler said.
That decision has paid off so far. Clark, 29, and Hossler, 28, carded a bogey-free 5-under 67 in foursomes at TPC Louisiana to claim the 36-hole lead.
“We didn’t do anything crazy, but we also didn’t really make any mistakes,” Hossler said. “It was a really clean round.”
The first-round co-leaders are bogey-free so far this week, improving to 16-under 128, one stroke better than their nearest competitors. Hossler did do one crazy thing Friday, burying a 60-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole. Otherwise, they kept it pretty simple.
“I’ll hit it pretty far off the tee and then he’ll have a wedge and he’s been stacking it,” Clark said. “It’s made it pretty easy.”
Play was suspended due to inclement weather for more than 2 and a half hours, but even that didn’t bother Hossler.
“I was pretty thrilled about it, to be honest. Standing on the sixth tee, it was raining pretty good, and it’s probably the most demanding tee shot out here, so I was happy to not have to hit it at that moment,” he said.
And Team Clark-Hossler has been enjoying not just the golf but the cuisine this week in the Big Easy. Hossler said Clark has been the director of food and beverage since they hit the town.
“We’ve gone to some really good spots,” Hossler said. “After tonight [Friday] we’ll have hit the best four (restaurants) in town, so it’s been really cool.”
Here are four other really cool things to know from the second round of the Zurich Classic.
The situation happened on the 11th fairway at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
A scary situation unfolded on Friday during the second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
A caddie for one of the amateurs playing alongside pros Beau Hossler and Max McGreevy collapsed on the 11th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Links, according to Paolo Uggetti of ESPN.
Geoff Couch and Lukas Nelson are the amateurs playing with Hossler and McGreevy.
He’s still receiving CPR as they stretcher him to an ambulance here at the 11th. Play has been stopped pic.twitter.com/z4wIYVJvWg
Uggetti reported that the caddie was receiving CPR while being taken to an ambulance. He also chronicled that PGA Tour rules officials were encouraging Hossler and McGreevy to resume play, but neither Hossler nor McGreevy were comfortable doing so.
Uggetti also reported that PGA Tour officials offered to let the players step aside so other groups could play through, but McGreevy told Uggetti that he couldn’t see his group resuming Friday.
Players and caddies now hugging each other. Lukas Nelson, the other amateur, just told me the caddie who collapsed is “doing better.” The group is headed back to the clubhouse to regroup. Unclear if they’ll continue play.
Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis reported Hossler and McGreevy would take a break and then return to the 11th hole once all groups had played through and they resume their second rounds. Lewis also said the group received a phone call stating the caddie would be OK.
When he saw a second appearance at the Tito’s Shorties Classic pop up on his schedule, the affable Higgs was eager to let loose.
After finishing tied for 14th at the Masters last April, Harry Higgs has seen the walls of competitive golf close in a little tighter, much of the fun of a game he grew up adoring squeezed dry.
He does what he’s supposed to, hitting the range for hours on end, and following with a thorough routine of putting and chipping drills, often at his home club of Trinity Forest near Dallas.
But even Higgs, known for his gregarious personality and insightful one-liners, admits that some of the fun has been sucked out while competing at the game’s highest level. He missed five straight cuts after leaving Augusta and lost his Tour card after a disappointing year that saw him finish just once inside the top 10.
So when he saw a second appearance at the Tito’s Shorties Classic pop up on his schedule, the affable Higgs was eager to let loose and have a little fun.
The event, held at Butler Pitch and Putt in downtown Austin, Texas, is a four-person skins game on a postage stamp in the heart of one of the most vibrant cities in the country. Drinks in hand. Trash talk flying. Dogs and PGA Tour pros walking together. And in the end, perhaps just the potion Higgs needed after a rough stretch.
The event took place in November but will air on Golf Channel on Jan. 11, 2023, at 7 p.m. ET, with Amanda Renner and the Bob Does Sports crew handling commentary. Tito’s donated to the charity each was playing for, with a total donation of $290,000.
“I went on a guys trip with four guys from my club, and I’ve done a few other things for fun here or there, but every time I do something like this, I think and say aloud to basically anybody that will listen, and obviously knowing me that turns into everybody, that holy s—, it is so nice to be reminded of it, but this is supposed to be fun, right?” Higgs said.
“One of the things that surprised me the most in, now, this is now my fourth year, how quickly this turned into a job, which I probably knew was coming, but maybe not as quick as it did.”
The Shorties Classic doesn’t feel like a job, even though he got paid for the event, along with returning player Joel Dahmen and newbies Keith Mitchell and Beau Hossler.
Joel Dahmen raises his hands during the Tito’s Shorties Classic, which will air on Golf Channel while Keith Mitchell and Beau Hossler watch. (Photo courtesy PGA Tour Entertainment)
Higgs and Dahmen will forever be linked through their half-naked escapade at the WM Phoenix Open last year and Mitchell is an old friend who Higgs often lived with while playing on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Hossler is a University of Texas grad and the player Higgs called “the smartest guy in the foursome, although he thinks he’s even smarter than he is.”
And according to Higgs, this year’s version of the event lives up to the debut, which featured Pat Perez getting shutout and Harold Varner III winning the top prize for charity by sinking a 15-footer on the final hole with one hand on his putter and the other wrapped around a beach ball.
“This is why we got into the game or anybody got into the game was to hang out with their friends. You know, to be outside and maybe travel to some fancy places. But you don’t travel around. You just go to a place like Butler, because, you know, you might just live just down the street. That’s why we all got into the game, was to have fun with our friends,” Higgs said. “Obviously, enjoy some competition here and there. But like, oh s—, just go have fun with your friends. That’s exactly what this was.”
Higgs is known for fun. And he hopes his game is trending in the right direction after making the cut in his last two events, both sponsor’s exemptions. The SMU product shot a second-round 62 at Mayakoba en route to a T-31 and then followed with a T-21 at the RSM Classic.
And while he can’t reveal how he played at Butler, it fits that he might have shown off the skills that helped him to 13 top-25 finishes in his first two seasons on Tour.
Most important, he thinks the foursome kept it clean enough to give Golf Channel a healthy 22 minutes of programming, something he worried about last year.
“I think we did a pretty decent job at entertaining folks this year, certainly in person and I would imagine it’ll come across on TV as somewhat entertaining,” Higgs said. “Last year I couldn’t believe they found 30 minutes without curse words based on how we had gone. I was shocked when I saw it, I was like holy cow, they didn’t have us cursing at all, because we cursed the entire time.”
“I’d heard some stories about Butler before I agreed to play here last year but I’d never been. I had some friends in Austin, or here in Dallas who got wind that we were going there and basically gave me a heads up,” he said. “But every major city, or not so major city, needs something like this. Butler kind of makes the event, right? There were probably, I would say, close to a thousand people in there, kind of walking around and hanging out, and to a man or woman, they were either saying it out loud or you can see it expressed on their face, how proud they were that we were there at their local pitch ‘n putt.
“I do not believe that PGA Tour pros should necessarily be in the business of growing the game. That gets talked about a lot and I’ve always been a little like, eh, you shouldn’t listen to us. But if you ask me, we need more courses more things like Butler. And you know, maybe having us come and highlight those courses for the area, and obviously for a good cause like we did, that will certainly help grow the game.”
The game’s best players are headed to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms for the Wells Fargo Championship. If that sounds odd, it should, as the regular host venue, Quail Hollow Club, will stage the Presidents Cup later this year.
TPC Potomac hosted the Quicken Loans National in 2017 and 2018 but hasn’t been featured on Tour since.
Rory McIlroy is both the defending champion and betting favorite (+750). Last year’s triumph was McIlroy’s third Wells Fargo Championship victory, but here are a few sleepers for this week:
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Spaun’s biggest fairytale moment came in Texas on Sunday when he emerged from a jam-packed leaderboard.
SAN ANTONIO — Growing up in Southern California, J.J. Spaun’s fondest childhood memories came at Disneyland, a place he remembers roaming as a preschooler and later enjoyed while holding a season’s pass as an adult.
But Spaun’s biggest fairytale moment came in Texas on Sunday when the former San Diego State University star — who turned pro nearly a decade ago — emerged from a jam-packed leaderboard to capture his first PGA Title, holding off Matt Jones, Beau Hossler and others to take the Valero Texas Open.
In his 147th Tour start, Spaun followed a double-bogey on the opening hole with solid, if unspectacular play, holding steady in a stiff Texas breeze while others faded. With the victory, he earned his first berth to the Masters, which starts this week in Augusta, Georgia. He shot a 69 on Sunday and finished the event at 13 under.
Spaun entered this week with just 11 career top-10 finishes and was a 150-1 shot to win, but he watched as a number of other players flamed out and calmly drained a number of mid-sized par putts to stay in the lead.
The 242nd-ranked player in the world coming into the event, Spaun played defensive down the stretch — hitting iron off the tee on the risk/reward 17th hole and making par with a four-foot putt. He made things interesting on the final hole, pulling his drive left down a hill on a par-5, but Spaun played safely out of the rough and avoided any major mishaps.
Matt Kuchar, who was two down on the final hole, went for the green on the par-5 and dropped his second shot in the water.
By virtue of an impressive 66, Matt Jones finished tied for runner-up with Kuchar at 11 under, although he’d finished nearly two hours before Spaun did. Canadian Adam Hadwin was third at 10 under, tied with Troy Merritt and Charles Howell III.
Among the others who made noise on Sunday were Keegan Bradley — who shot a 66 to get into the conversation early at 9 under, before the pack kept pulling away from him — and former Texas star Hossler, who was tied for the lead to start the day but scrambled all day and finally fell out of contention with a double-bogey on the 14th hole.
Opponents best beware that they don’t want to tangle with the Tennessee native on the final five holes.
SAN ANTONIO — There’s just something that fits his eye, tickles his fancy, releases any jitters. Whatever it is, the closing stretch at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course simply works for Brandt Snedeker.
And as he heads into the final round tied for the lead at the Valero Texas Open, his opponents best beware that they don’t want to tangle with the Tennessee native on the final five holes if things are close.
Snedeker used another hot stretch on the final portion of the card Saturday, posting three birdies on the final five holes to finish his day with a 67. After playing the last five holes in 8 under through the last two days, he now sits at 10 under, tied with J.J. Spaun and former Texas Longhorns Beau Hossler and Dylan Frittelli for the lead.
The affable Snedeker, known primarily for his short game, has uncharacteristically struggled a bit with his putter this week but has made up for it by hitting the course’s wide fairways, all despite swirling winds. For example, he played the final hole — a par-5 — smart and smooth, laying up to 125 yards for his approach and then sticking his third shot into 12 feet.
And although he missed the putt, he still feels the final portion of the course could help him, if he needs a push on Sunday. He hasn’t been in the winner’s circle since the 2018 Wyndham Championship when he posted a comfortable three-stroke victory.
“(The final five holes) set up really well for me. I’ve got a good history there it seems like over the last few times I played here,” said Snedeker, who has finished in the top 25 in each of his previous four starts at this event, including a sixth-place finish last year. “I like the way they set up and I just feel really comfortable on them. And those are all birdie holes. You’re going to have to birdie a lot of those holes to go on and win this week. So I was able to kind of take advantage of it yesterday, got hot, and today I hit a bunch of quality shots coming in.
“Wish I could have made that up on 18, but besides that, I’ll be able to pull on that tomorrow coming down the stretch. If I need to make some birdies, I know I can do it, I’ve done it. So hopefully I won’t need to, but if I do, I know it will be there.”
Beau Hossler takes a tee shot on the first hole during the third round of the Valero Texas Open golf tournament. Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
Meanwhile, Hossler also has had success at TPC San Antonio, making the cut in the last three years.
While Snedeker has struggled with his putter, Hossler has used a hot flatstick to get to the top of the leaderboard, something that was customary for him his first few years on Tour, but has failed him in recent seasons.
And as someone who played collegiately up I-35 in Austin, Hossler knows how special this would be, to win the 100th-anniversary edition of the event. This week has seen a number of the former champions — Ben Crenshaw, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, etc. — floating around the grounds as part of the celebration.
But Hossler is still looking for his debut victory on the PGA Tour and is playing on a sponsor exemption, meaning he’s trying to put the historic perspective aside.
“I just can’t get into that. To be honest, I’ll take a win at any tournament, right?” he said. “So it would be awesome. I mean, I went to college and I live an hour and 10 minutes away from here. With that said, if I start thinking about that, I’m in big trouble. So I’m just going to go out and play some golf tomorrow and hopefully, that’s enough.”
