Poston heists Wyndham for first TOUR title

By
Mo Yoshimoto,

By
Mo Yoshimoto

Published August 5, 2019 10:33 AM

Wyndham Championship

Sedgefield CC

Greensboro, North Carolina

1974. The last – and only – player in PGA TOUR history to win with no bogeys over 72 holes was Lee Trevino at the 1974 Greater New Orleans Open. The Merry Mex, as he was affectionally known.

Well, 45 years later, someone else was merry on Sunday and added their name to the record books, and his name is J.T. Poston, who claimed his first TOUR title in his 77^th event (and first pro win on any tour) as a pre-tourney 100/1 outright. 72 holes of blemish-free golf. Splendid.

Playing out of the third-to-last twosome, the World No. 164 erased a three-shot deficit with a day-low, bogey-free 8-under 62 to win by one over runner-up and fellow North Carolina native Webb Simpson (65), who won his first of five TOUR titles here in 2011.

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Simpson, the top-ranked OWGRer in the field (No. 17) and a pre-tourney 9/1 fave outright, comes second fiddle for a second straight year at Sedgefield, and is the new No. 1 in all-time earnings in the event with seven top 10s and four top 3s. He records his third runner-up of the season, third in his last five starts, and second consecutive after solo 2^nd (to world-beater Brooks Koepka) at last week’s WGC in Memphis.

Alongside Simpson in the final pairing was World No. 55 Byeong Hun An, who had led/co-led after each of the first three rounds. Like Poston, An was chasing his first TOUR title and like Poston, was bogey-free through 54 holes.

The South Korean authored 14 more holes of bogey-free golf before finishing bogey-birdie-par-bogey for 67 and solo 3^rd, two adrift.

Poston’s playing competitor, non-member and sponsor invite Viktor Hovland, tossed up a 65 in his tourney debut to finish a career-best solo 4^th, three in arrears. The Norwegian, playing just his fifth pro event, was attempting to secure his card for next season but ran out of starts.

Poston, 26, has now played 246 rounds on TOUR. Prior to Sunday, he had led or co-led after just two of them, and both of those were after Round 1. The Western Carolina alum was T1 at the 2017 DEAN & DELUCA (finished T41), and in his last start two weeks ago at the opposite-field Barbasol, was the 18-hole leader by one with a career-low, 10-under 62, before fading to T29.

He was a 35/1 entering Sunday’s finale, the highest odds of any of the final seven players to tee off, and surely was going to fade again. By comparison, An and Simpson were 2/1’s.

Well that time never came.

Instead, the St. Simons Island, Georgia, resident was cool, calm and collected, carding 1 eagle and 6 birdies, and saving par two times from between five and eight feet. Those par-savers came on the back nine (holes 11 and 14), just the time you’d figure a non-winner – and someone who hadn’t recorded a podium finish – to fold.

Again, that time never came.

Poston, unflappable the entire week, totaled 22-under 258, matching the tournament’s aggregate scoring record with 2017 winner Henrik Stenson.

Playing his third consecutive season on TOUR, he enters the FedExCup Playoffs a career-high 27^th in the FEC standings. He’s only played in one prior post-season event, missing the cut by eight at last year’s NORTHERN TRUST (75-75) at Ridgewood CC in New Jersey.

Final Leaderboard (pre-tourney odds outright):

1- (-22, 258) J.T. Poston (100/1)

2- (-21, 259) Webb Simpson (9/1); fave

3- (-20, 260) Byeong Hun An (50/1)

4- (-19, 261) Viktor Hovland (25/1)

5- (-17, 263) Si Woo Kim (125/1)

Note: Repeat top-10 finishers from last year: Simpson (2-2-3)

Poston’s Position by Round:

R1: T16 (3 back)

R2: T9 (3 back)

R3: T5 (3 back)

Poston on Sunday:

After kicking off with 65-65-66, he began T5, three back.

Poston landed 10 (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation, posting 0.002 SG: Off-the-Tee, 2.397 SG: Approach, 0.752 SG: Around, and 3.151 SG: Tee-to-Green.

He rang up six birdies at holes 2, 7, 8, 10 (from 12’2”), 13 and 15, adding eagle-3 at 5 from 13’1”. Poston recorded a tidy 1.500 putts per GIR and 2.494 SG: Putting with 25 total putts.

OUT: 5-under 30 (1 eagle, 3 birdies, 0 bogeys)

IN: 3-under 32 (3 birdies, 0 bogeys); Poston WINS by one (over Simpson).

How Poston Won the Tournament:

Ranked 1^st (or T1) in: SG: Approach; SG: Tee-to-Green; Total Bogeys; Birdie to Bogey Ratio; Par-4 Scoring; GIR; Scrambling

Ranked 2^nd (or T2) in: Driving Accuracy; All-Around

Note: See “Strokes Gained Leaders Stats” at the bottom, along with his full stats.

Least Important Stat(s): Driving Distance (ranked 54^th); SG: Off-the-Tee (28^th); Par-3 Scoring (T28)

Poston at the Wyndham:

Starts: 3

Top 25s: 1

Wins: 1

Form: 1-MC-50

Poston’s TOUR Career:

Starts: 77

Cuts Made: 53 (68.8%)

Top 25s: 18 (23.3%)

Top 10s: 6 (7.7%)

Top 5s: 3 (3.8%)

Wins: 1 (1.2%)

Poston’s Season:

Starts: 27

Cuts Made: 19

Top 25s: 8

Top 10s: 3

Top 5s: 1

Wins: 1

Season Form (most recent 10): 1-29-MC-11-MC-52-MC-60-MC-MC

By the Numbers:

2887: With 2,887 points, World No. 1 Koepka is the regular-season FEC champion, 572 points ahead of second-place finisher Rory McIlroy. Koepka led the standings for three weeks – the last three weeks of the season. No.-3 finisher Matt Kuchar led for 17 weeks, the most, including 16 weeks consecutive, prior to Koepka taking over.

35/1: Poston’s revised outright betting entering R4.

2/1: Simpson’s revised outright betting entering R4.

10: Simpson, chasing his sixth TOUR title, first since the 2018 PLAYERS 30 starts ago, claims his 10^th career runner-up in 280 events. It’s his third in his last five starts, second straight.

62: Poston’s Sunday 62 matched his career low, a 10-under version in his last start two weeks ago at the Barbasol (R1), where he finished T29.

63: Three starts ago at the inaugural Rocket Mortgage, Poston shot a 9-under 63 in R2 and was solo 2^nd after 54 holes, six back of leader and eventual winner Nate Lashley, before 1-over 73 for T11 out of the final twosome.

T4: Poston’s previous-best finish on TOUR was T4 at the 2018 Shriners 47 starts ago.

4: Poston connected four sub-par rounds for the first time since T7 at the Desert Classic back in January (20 starts ago).

50: Poston’s previous best at the Wyndham was T50 on debut in 2017 two tries ago. He missed the cut by seven last year on 4-over 144 (71-73).

3: An’s solo 3^rd is a season best and third top of the season in 20 starts. He’ s been a runner-up three times on TOUR and claims his fourth podium in 94 events, first since T2 at the 2018 Canadian Open as a 54-hole co-leader.

4: Non-member Viktor Hovland’s solo 4^th is his first top 10 in 10 career events (five pro). He needed a two-way T2 to earn his card for next season, but qualifies for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The 21-year-old ended the season with four consecutive top 20s, 16 straight sub-par rounds, and Sunday rounds of 64-65-64-65. He was the top Wyndham debutant of 34.

25: Three players co-led the field in total par breakers with 25: Hovland, Simpson, and Billy Horschel (finished T6).

5: Si Woo Kim, the 2016 Wyndham winner, backdoored a solo 5^th with bogey-free 64. It’s his fifth top 10 of the season in 26 events, four of those top 5s, first since T4 at the Valero 12 starts ago.

6: Making his tourney debut, rookie Sungjae Im, a first-round co-leader with a career-low 62, ended up T6, his seventh top 10 in 32 events. He was the top-rookie finisher (of 21) and is the only rookie (of 22) to enter the Playoffs in the Top 30 in the FEC standings.

1: Of the 12 players that finished in the top 10, only one came from the LATE/early side of the draw: Im.

9: Ten players have qualified for the Playoffs in all 12 seasons: Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Ryan Moore, Bubba Watson, Charley Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Justin Rose and Zach Johnson. That number is now nine, as Johnson finished T53 this week and did not qualify at 154^th in the FEC standings (down 2).

1: Defending and two-time champ Snedeker, who entered No. 1 in all-time earnings in this event, finished T39, dipping to No. 2 in earnings behind Simpson. Eight-time champ Sam Snead, the TOUR’s all-time leader in wins with 82, remains the only back-to-back Wyndham champ (1955-56; 1949-50).

125: Entering No. 125 in the FEC standings, bubble boy Alex Noren finished T60 in his tourney debut, dropping four places to 129^th. Pat Perez (MC), drops from 122^nd to 125, and is this season’s last man in.

126: Richy Werenski finished T39, and ends up 126^th in the FEC standings (up 1).

77: Jordan Spieth, a late entry and 14/1 outright, shot 64-67 and a birdie-less 77 to MDF. He was T7 after R1, T12 after R2. The third-round 77 was just his fourth lap (in 592) without a par breaker. The 26-year-old limps into the post-season at 69^th in FEC points (down 2).

2: Through 43 non-team events this season, the pre-tourney fave/co-fave has won two times: Rory McIlroy (12/1 co-fave) at THE PLAYERS, and Collin Morikawa at the Barracuda (10/1).

T31: Morikawa, who entered with three straight top 10s, finished T31 in his tourney debut.