J.T.

Poston

Poston held his own in the final group, matching the eventual winner Jon Rahm’s Sunday tally, but Rahm started four shots clear of Poston. The Western Carolina product circled six birdies today but gave two shots back at the par-4 seventh where he rinsed his tee ball. Poston walks out of PGA WEST with 29 birdies (T2) and an eagle, offsetting a six-pack of bogeys and today’s double. He’s now strung together four straight top 25s but won’t test that record next week, opting to skip the Farmers Insurance Open.

Poston didn’t impress with his tee-to-green stats today. He split just 6-of-14 fairways and landed 11 GIR. From there, he used a sharp short game to gain his ground. The Western Carolina product went 18-for-18 on his putts from inside of 15 feet today. That included a trio from the 11-to-14 foot range while he also added a 16'8" birdie putt at the 18th. Poston walked off the course gaining 4.8 strokes putting, ranking first in the field this morning.He started the week at 21st in the FedExCup race and is doing his part early this week to secure a seat at East Lake.

The 29-year-old, a pre-tourney 40/1 outright and 4/5 fave entering the finale with a 3-shot lead, claims his second PGA TOUR title in 155 events, first since a 3-shot, come-from-behind triumph at the 2019 Wyndham 78 starts ago, where he played all 72 holes bogey-free. He arrived off a T2 last week at the Travelers, where he was an 18-hole co-leader with a career-tying-low 62, opened this week with another 62, becoming the first player of record (since 1983) to accomplish that, and led by two shots, four shots and three shots, respectively. The Western Carolina alum, who handed in laps of week-low 62, 65-67-69, improves to 1-for-5, 1-for-2, and 1-for-3 as an 18-, 36- and 54-hole leader/co-leader, is the first wire-to-wire winner at the Deere since 1992, and with the win, earns a plethora of invites, including to the 150th Open at St. Andrews in two weeks, where he’ll make his eighth overall major appearance but first at The Open. For the week, he tallied two eagles and 22 birdies against five bogeys, and ranked 1st SG: Tee-to-Green (13.410), including 1st SG: Around (5.950), and 31st SG: Putting (2.257), losing an inconsequential 1.126 with the flat stick on Sunday. At the moment, the St. Simons Island, Georgia, resident is still showing in the published field at this coming week’s Barbasol in Kentucky. See link below to his post-tourney presser.

The 29-year-old, who began the day with a four-shot cushion, played with this week’s housemate Denny McCarthy (66) in R3, and will be in the final pairing again in R4, this time with Scott Stallings, scheduled for 12:45 pm CT. This is his third 54-hole lead/co-lead in 155 events, previously 0-for-2 converting, and first since last season’s opposite-field Barbasol (last July), where he led by one, shot 1-under 71, and lost in extra time to Seamus Power. The Western Carolina alum owns one TOUR victory to date, a three-shot, come-from-behind version at the 2019 Wyndham 78 starts ago, where he played all 72 holes bogey-free, and has dropped three shots this week (two today at holes 12 and 15, both 3-jacks from distance) against 18 birdies and two eagles, including a 3 today at 17 from 13'8". Thru 54 holes, he’s posted progressively worse laps of 62-65-67, and ranks No. 1 SG: Tee-to-Green (11.646) and 23rd SG: Putting (3.383), lowlighted by a -0.789 in R3. See link below to post-round comments.

The 29-year-old, who’s housemates with good friend McCarthy this week, follows a bogey-free, career-tying-low 62 with a seven-birdie, one-bogey effort on Day 2. This is his second 36-hole lead/co-lead in 155 events, first since last season’s opposite-field Barbasol, where he led by one, was also the 54-hole leader by one, before eventually losing in extra time to first-time winner Seamus Power. At the midpoint, the Western Carolina alum has tallied one eagle and 14 birdies, T1 in Total Birdies, versus just one bogey, a 5 today at the par-4 sixth (failed sand save), and ranks 1st SG: Tee-to-Green (9.248), T1 in Greens in Regulation at 86.11 percent (31/36), and 11th SG: Putting (4.172), including a 1.347 SGP in R2. See link below to post-round comments.

Poston opened with an 8-under 62 last week at the Travelers to share the first-round lead. It was another quick start today as he piled up seven birdies with an eagle along the way. Highlights included a pair off putts bombed home from outside of 25 feet and a hole-out from the greenside bunker at the par-4 fourth. He’s making his fifth appearance at the JDC and has never finished better than 64th (2017) but that will likely change by week’s end. If this lead holds then it’ll be his fifth time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR. His lone PGA TOUR title came at the 2019 Wyndham Championship. UPDATE: With R1 complete, Poston leads by two over Michael Gligic.

The 29-year-old, who arrived off two missed cuts in his last three, sandwiching a T37 at the Memorial, cashes his first paycheck at the Travelers in five visits, coming up a couple short of winner Xander Schauffele (68). He falls to 0-for-4 as an 18-hole leader/co-leader but improves to 9-for-23 on the season with three top 10s, eclipsing a prior-season-best, backdoor T3 at the RBC Heritage seven starts ago (68-72-68-64), and is projected to climb from 112th in the FedExCup standings to 66th. The Western Carolina alum, who is in the published field at this coming week’s John Deere Classic, posted rounds of 62-70-67-64, totaled one eagle and 19 birdies versus four bogeys, no bogeys in Rounds 1 and 4, and ranked 7th SG: Tee-to-Green (9.081), including 2nd SG: Approach (8.172), and 12th SG: Putting (5.307), highlighted by a 2.388 SGP on Sunday. Prior to this week, his best rounds at TPC River Highlands were 1-under 69s (x3), and had missed the cut by three shots, three shots, eight shots, and four shots, respectively. See link below to post-tourney comments.

After kicking off with 62-70, the 29-year-old began T7, six back of overnight leader Xander Schauffele, and remained that way at the end of Day 3. On nine (of 14) fairways and 13 greens in regulation, he went out in 2-over (1 birdie, 3 bogeys) and was falling off the planet, but rallied with an error-free home half, circling three at 11, 14 and 17, and double-circling 13 (from 4'2") after a brilliant approach from 223 yards away. The Western Carolina alum is in the top 10 after 54 holes for the first time in 11 months, last visiting at the opposite-field Barbasol July of last year, where he was the 54-hole leader by one, ended with 2-under 70, and lost in extra time to first-time TOUR winner Seamus Power. His lone TOUR victory in 153 events remains the 2019 Wyndham 76 starts ago, where he came from three back (T5) with a day-low, bogey-free 8-under 62 to win by one over Webb Simpson.

The Western Carolina alum, who follows a bogey-free, career-tying-low 62 with a one-birdie, one-bogey showing on Friday, makes his first cut in the event in five tries and is currently down two spots to T3, one short of clubhouse co-leaders Patrick Cantlay (67) and defender Harris English (65). This is his second time (individually) this season in 23 events that he’s in the top 10 at halftime, first since the WM Phoenix Open back in February, where he was T8 before finishing T23 (69-66-70-70). The 29-year-old, who rang up eight birdies in R1, digressed to nine (of 14) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, and at last check, lost 1.046 strokes to the field average from the early starters, -0.992 of that tee-to-green. His lone TOUR title in 153 events is the 2019 Wyndham 76 starts ago, where he was T9 (3 back) at the halfway mark before going on to a 1-shot victory (65-65-66-62), playing the entire event bogey-free. See link below to post-round comments.

Poston started his afternoon on the 10th tee and was dialed in from the start. He gave himself eight straight scoring chances from inside of 14 feet to kick off the day. Poston converted on six of those to make the turn on 6-under before slowing his pace on the homeward nine. The Western Carolina product walked off the course ranked first in strokes gained approach (+4.8) and 12th in putting (+2.3). “t was nice to kind of finally put some good swings together, hit some good shots and make some putts. I feel like my scores and my results may not have shown that the last few weeks or months, but I felt like I was getting close, and I’ve been working hard at it. I guess today was kind of one of those days where it finally clicked a little bit.” This will be his third round of 62 recorded on the PGA TOUR (2019 Barbasol Championship; 2019 Wyndham Championship). It will also go in the books as his fourth time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR. He’s failed to find a top-10 finish after any of his previous fast starts (T41/2017 DEAN & DELUCA Invitational; T29/2019 Barbasol Championship; T11/2019 Sanderson Farms Championship).