Tag: jt poston

Special delivery: ‘The Postman’ J.T. Poston posts third career PGA Tour title at Shriners Children’s Open

Known for his silky-smooth stroke, Poston’s putter came through when it mattered.

What rust?

J.T. Poston hadn’t played since the BMW Championship in August but the break helped his game hit a new peak.

Poston shot a final-round 4-under 67 at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas on Sunday to win the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open by one stroke over Doug Ghim.

“I know I had a comfortable lead for most of the day but it never felt safe,” Poston said.

The 31-year-old Poston from Hickory, North Carolina, dreamed of becoming a Tarheel at the University of North Carolina but never got an offer and ended up playing at Western Carolina, where he was two-time Player of the Year in the Southern Conference. Not being considered one of the highly-touted players has given him a chip on his shoulder, but thanks to a strong wedge game and a putting stroke to die for, Poston needed just one season on the Korn Ferry Tour and has blossomed into a consistent top-50 player and a now a three-time winner on the PGA Tour.

Poston finished 41st in the FedEx Cup this season and it gave him a chance to put the clubs aways for several weeks and reset and recharge his battery with a long family vacation to the North Carolina mountains, though with a six-month-old daughter running around it’s questionable how much rest he really enjoyed.

“She changes every day, every week, and so just get to go see that and be there for her and my wife has been incredible,” Poston said.

Poston always had this event circled as one he wanted to play this fall at a course with bentgrass greens like the ones he grew up playing as a kid. He also had some unfinished business after tying for third last season in Las Vegas.

Shriners Children’s Open: Leaderboard | Photos

This time, Poston opened with a bogey-free 64 and tacked on rounds of 65 and 66. The third round was suspended Saturday evening with 30 players still on the course, including Poston, who returned Sunday morning and made three birdies in his final five holes to build a three-stroke lead.

In the final round, Poston made birdies at the first and fourth holes and then skated along with seven straight pars to give his competitors a sense that trophy still was up for grabs. Ghim, a Las Vegas resident and competing on his home course, sank an 11-foot eagle putt at the ninth hole to reach 19 under and cut Poston’s lead to one. He wasted a great chance to tie for the lead at No. 11, leaving an 8-foot birdie putt short in the jaws and despite a birdie at 18 settled for shooting 65 and second place, his best career finish on Tour.

“Haven’t had the best history so far in final rounds and final groups, so it’s definitely going to be a little badge on my chest I guess in a sense that the next time I get in position I’ll have that in my memory bank of knowing I’ve done it before,” said Ghim, who played his final 37 holes without a bogey.

Matti Schmid played the final six holes in 5 under to shoot 66 and tied for third with Rico Hoey (66). Michael Kim, who entered the week at No. 129 in the FedEx Cup Fall and had missed the cut or withdrawn from his last five starts, was among a trio of players who finished T-5. After a bogey at No. 11, Kim reeled off five birdies in a row and carded 10 on the day. He closed in 62, tying his career low, and recorded his best result in 27 starts this season.

Poston took control of the tournament with a convincing closing nine. He rang the birdie bell, not once but twice in a row, draining a 21-foot birdie at the par-3 12th, a 3-footer at the par-5 13th, and adding a 12-footer at 15 to extend his cushion to as many as four strokes. But he missed a 6-foot birdie putt at 16 that could’ve sealed the deal and a 3-foot par putt at 17 to give Ghim a glimmer of hope. After Ghim closed with a birdie, the hole had to look as small as a thimble as Poston sweated out one more 4-foot par putt to clinch the title. He took care of business and signed for a 72-hole total of 22-under 262.

“I just told myself this is what you dream of, you’ve got a putt to win on the PGA Tour and just try to forget about the last two (strokes),” Poston said. “I told myself I’ve made a million of these and just do one more.”

‘If you’re gonna try and double dip, that’s where a lot of guys have an issue’: Will Zalatoris, Billy Horschel, other PGA Tour players don’t sound too happy about lawsuit by LIV golfers

“So they’re gonna play 29 times and their mantra is we wanna play less golf.”

On Wednesday it was announced that 11 LIV Golf members have filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour in response to being banned from the league after jumping ship and joining the Saudi-backed, Greg Norman-led circuit.

Just a few hours later, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan released a memo to players saying: “We have been preparing to protect our membership and contest this latest attempt to disrupt our Tour, and you should be confident in the legal merits of our position.”

This week in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the final event of the 2021-22 PGA Tour regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Several players in the field, and a few on social media, have responded to the lawsuit.

And they don’t sound too happy about it.

Scott Piercy’s blister, Emiliano Grillo’s success on sixth hole among five takeaways from third round of 3M Open

The third round of the 3M Open ended more than 14 hours after it started with Scott Piercy still in the lead.

Scott Piercy has a blister on his right foot, but it didn’t stop him from stretching his lead at the 3M Open to four strokes.

Piercy, who led by three at the start of the day, blistered the field with five straight birdies beginning at No. 3, and carded a 5-under 66 at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, to build his lead over Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.

Piercy began taking his shoe off between shots beginning at No. 9 and continued to do so for several holes.

“And people say golf isn’t a sport,” Max Homa tweeted of Piercy dealing with his blister. “Check mate haters!”

The 43-year-old Piercy held a commanding six-stroke lead until he made his lone blunder of the day at the last. From 248 yards, Piercy fatted his second shot at the par-5 18th into the lake fronting the green, but he recovered to salvage a bogey. It was still good enough to set the 3M Open 54-hole tournament record (18-under 195) as he seeks a fifth career PGA Tour title and first individual title since the 2015 Barbasol Championship.

It was a long day that began bright and early to try to beat forecasted storms. The weatherman was right and play was suspended at 10:57 a.m. Six hours and 38 minutes later, play resumed.

“It was a weird round, I feel like two rounds,” Tony Finau said. “You know, played the first eight this morning and then the final 10 this evening, so it was just kind of a strange feel to it when you have that long of a delay, but roll with the punches.”