JT Poston Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

JT Poston cost himself $260K on final hole of 3M Open, says he’s ‘not out here to finish 2nd’

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 08:29:27 +0000

JT Poston. Stavy Revere

While Lee Hodges had seemingly sucked most of the drama out of the last few holes of the 3M Open late Sunday, his playing partner JT Poston provided plenty at the last possible moment.

That drama cost Poston $260,000.

The two were heading down the par-5 18th hole at TPC Twin Cities with Hodges holding a comfortable three-shot lead over Poston, who was three shots clear of third place. Hodges, looking for his first PGA Tour victory, hit his tee shot left and into the rough. Poston, a two-time PGA Tour winner, hit his drive right, a couple feet from the water and inside the red hazard line.

After a long discussion with caddie Aaron Flener, Poston opted to go for the green with his second shot from 214 yards. This despite the ball being a foot below his feet and Poston needing to carry almost the entire distance to cover the water guarding the front of the green. Ultimately, the ball came out low, bounced off rocks along the edge of the water and hit the 3M Open sign that was in the water.

After a drop, Poston laid up to 98 yards with his fourth shot. From there, he simply needed to hit the ball on the green and two-putt for double-bogey 7 to still secure solo second place. But he missed the green short, putted it from 30 feet away to five feet and missed that double-bogey putt. A tap-in for a triple-bogey 8 dropped him back into a three-way tie for second place at 17-under par.

So here’s where the $260K comes in. A solo second-place finish would’ve given Poston $850,000. The second-place tie with Martin Laird and Kevin Streelman gave him $590,200.

Not out here to finish 2nd. Trying to win. Would make that decision 10 times out of 10 under circumstances https://t.co/GHsIErHCil

— J.T. Poston (@JT_ThePostman) July 30, 2023

“At the end of the day it’s not the way I wanted to end, but I had to try and give it a shot and see if there was some way I could make 3 there at the end and put some pressure on Lee,” said Poston, who shot 69 and later reiterated his thoughts on Twitter. “It was a shot that was going to be hard to pull off, but we weren’t playing for second place. I had to give it a shot.”

Earlier, Laird and Streelman both produced some impressive play on the final hole, not knowing that it eventually would be worth more money and FedEx Cup points. Laird made a 20-foot putt for eagle on the 18th to shoot 64, and Streelman hit a wedge to eight feet and made that for birdie to shoot 66.

The threesome was a shot ahead of Dylan Wu and Keith Mitchell in fifth place, but seven shots behind Hodges, who shot a final-round 67.

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Justin Thomas makes clutch par putt to win brilliant bet against JT Poston

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 09:05:04 +0000

Justin Thomas holed an eight-foot par putt on his final hole on Thursday to get off to a solid two-under-par start at the 2023 Valspar Championship. It also won him a nice side bet against his playing partner — even if no money was involved.

You see, JT was playing with JT Poston. And that final putt gave the two-time major champ a one-shot victory in their individual match-up. While guaranteeing the other JT’s caddie would have to wear a bib that says, well, “The Other JT”.

Have a look:

Huge putt on the last to clip @JT_ThePostman by 1 today. Gives me full “JT” bragging rights for tomorrow https://t.co/wXNvRjJGI4

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) March 16, 2023

Nice job taking advantage of a fun pairing — and the Valspar’s fun tradition of encouraging nicknames on caddie bibs. Although nothing will top two years ago when Mark Hubbard had his caddie wear one that said “Kick Me”.

At the Valspar championship this week, players can put whatever name they want on the back of their caddies. Some golfers chose their social handle, others a nickname, @HomelessHubbs chose this pic.twitter.com/RNR5aQm6rA

— Nathan Hubbard (@NathanCHubbard) April 29, 2021

Of course, considering Thomas has as many majors on his resume as Poston has PGA Tour titles, he’s always going to have the ultimate bragging rights in this battle. So Poston was always going to be “The Other JT” in this pairing. Now fans at Innisbrook will just be reminded of that fact the rest of the week.

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PGA Tour: Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer at the 2022 Travelers Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 11:55:31 +0000

GolfDigestME.com
At 17-under, Xander Schauffele held a one-shot edge entering the final round of the Travelers Championship, which sounded like a good thing. The problem, however, was that sticking the landing at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, on Sunday is often a challenge.

For starters, Schauffele’s track record when holding a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour is poor. All four previous occasions he’s been in this position, he has failed to convert, finishing T-2 three times and T-3 once.

More interesting perhaps than Schauffele’s past finishes are the tournament’s. In the last 10 years of the event, only two 54-hole leaders had won (Jordan Spieth in 2017 and Chez Reavie in 2019). And four of the eight who rallied on Sunday did so from at least three shots from behind.

Enter Sahith Theegala, a 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie who started the day three shots off the lead, but came to the 72nd hole at 19-under, one ahead of Schauffele after making five birdies over the first 17 holes. But Theegala hit his tee shot on the last into left fairway bunker off the tee, the ball coming very close to the front lip. And he got aggressive with the second shot, trying to get it to the green only to have it hit the lip and move just four inches.

Theegala played this third out of the bunker short of the green, and hit his fourth to 12 feet, but failed to make the bogey putt.

Enter (again) Schauffele, who made birdie on the last hole to finish with a two-under 68 and a two-stroke win at 19-under 261. And it was a big win, his first individual PGA Tour title since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions and the sixth of his career. No one questioned Schauffele’s talent — 35 top-10 in his 133 career starts, with five wins, 10 runners-up and six thirds — but being on top after 72 holes is difficult for anybody, including the 28-year-old Californian.

MORE: Xander ends his PGA Tour drought

With the victory, Schauffele claimed the $1.494 million first-place prize money payout. The overall purse the Travelers is $8.3 million. Below is the prize money payout for each golfer who made the cut at TPC River Highlands.

Win: Xander Schuaffele, -19, $1,494,000
T-2: Sahith Theegala, -17, $738,700
T-2: J.T. Poston, -17, $738,700
4: Michael Thorbjornsen, -16, Amateur
5: Chesson Hadley, 266/-14, $406,700
T-6: Kevin Kisner, 268/-12, $320,587.50
T-6: Keith Mitchell, 268/-12, $320,587.50
T-8: Nick Hardy, 269/-11, $243,605
T-8: Brian Harman, 269/-11, $243,605
T-8: William McGirt, 269/-11, $243,605
T-8: Chez Reavie, 269/-11, $243,605
T-8: Scott Stallings, 269/-11, $243,605
T-13: Patrick Cantlay, 270/-10, $159,775
T-13: Tony Finau, 270/-10, $159,775
T-13: John Huh, 270/-10, $159,775
T-13: Martin Laird, 270/-10, $159,775
T-13: Scottie Scheffler, 270/-10, $159,775
T-13: Webb Simpson, 270/-10, $159,775
T-19: Keegan Bradley, 271/-9, $106,101.67
T-19: Luke List, 271/-9, $106,101.67
T-19: Rory McIlroy, 271/-9, $106,101.67
T-19: Matthew NeSmith, 271/-9, $106,101.67
T-19: Harris English, 271/-9, $106,101.66
T-19: K.H. Lee, 271/-9, $106,101.66
T-25: Ryan Armour, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Bill Haas, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Lee Hodges, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Mackenzie Hughes, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Nate Lashley, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Adam Long, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Seamus Power, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Brendan Steele, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Kevin Streelman, 272/-8, $61,835
T-25: Adam Svensson, 272/-8, $61,835
T-35: Wyndham Clark, 273/-7, $43,243
T-35: Christopher Gotterup, 273/-7, $43,243
T-35: Charles Howell III, 273/-7, $43,243
T-35: Sam Ryder, 273/-7, $43,243
T-35: Robert Streb, 273/-7, $43,243
T-40: Michael Gligic, 274/-6, $36,105
T-40: Aaron Rai, 274/-6, $36,105
T-40: Matthew Wolff, 274/-6, $36,105
T-43: Hayden Buckley, 275/-5, $31,125
T-43: Conrad Shindler, 275/-5, $31,125
T-43: Harold Varner III, 275/-5, $31,125
T-46: Tyler Duncan, 276/-4, $23,678.72
T-46: Ben Silverman, 276/-4, $23,678.72
T-46: Matt Wallace, 276/-4, $23,678.72
T-46: Tommy Fleetwood, 276/-4, $23,678.71
T-46: Mark Hubbard, 276/-4, $23,678.71
T-46: Andrew Novak, 276/-4, $23,678.71
T-46: Andrew Putnam, 276/-4, $23,678.71
T-53: Paul Barjon, 277/-3, $20,003
T-53: Stewart Cink, 277/-3, $20,003
T-53: Matthias Schwab, 277/-3, $20,003
T-56: Jonas Blixt, 278/-2, $19,007
T-56: Joseph Bramlett, 278/-2, $19,007
T-56: Cam Davis, 278/-2, $19,007
T-56: Luke Donald, 278/-2, $19,007
T-56: Kelly Kraft, 278/-2, $19,007
T-56: Hank Lebioda, 278/-2, $19,007
T-56: Taylor Moore, 278/-2, $19,007
63: Austin Cook, 279/-1, $18,343
T-64: Patton Kizzire, 280/E, $18,011
T-64: Peter Malnati, 280/E, $18,011
T-64: Davis Riley, 280/E, $18,011
67: Kevin Tway, 281/+1, $17,679
68: Morgan Hoffmann, 282/+2, $17,513
69: Joel Dahmen, 284/+4, $17,347
T-70: Lucas Glover, 285/+5, $17,098
T-70: Harry Higgs, 285/+5, $17,098

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Travelers takeaways from Day 1: A weary Rory still shoots 62, Xander’s new focus and Spieth can’t stop talking (to his ball)

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 05:42:52 +0000

By Shane Ryan
If you thought Rory McIlroy might be flagging just a little, following a run of terrific form interrupted only by his regular vociferous defences of the PGA Tour, well … you’d be right. He’s under the weather, he’s tired after a punishing US Open and he’s looking forward to his time off starting on Monday, when he’ll start his preparation for the Open Championship at St Andrews. We could be forgiven for thinking that he might not set the world on fire in his last stop before the big rest at the Travelers Championship.

Guess what? He set the world on fire.

With a scintillating 62 at TPC River Highlands, McIlroy seized a share of the opening-round lead with the lowest Day 1 score he’s ever shot in a PGA Tour event. And he did it with very little preparation.

“I didn’t hit any golf balls Monday and Tuesday,” he said. “I flew back down to Florida for a day, spent the night in my own bed, flew back up Tuesday, didn’t come to the course, and then yesterday playing the pro-am in the rain wasn’t really great preparation, but … I played well at Brookline. I’m not going to lose it in two days. I knew my game was good.”

It started out just modestly good, with an opening nine that felt “slow, in a way,” at least to McIlroy. His first birdie came at the 13th, his fourth hole of the day, when he buried a 31-foot birdie putt on the par 5. He followed with another birdie on 15, and finished off his opening with an approach to nine feet on 18 that he converted for a third birdie. It was at that point that he truly did the “caught fire” thing, making five more birdies on the front to post a 30.

The most impressive of the bunch may have been this bomb from 47 feet on 7:

Back to back birdies @TravelersChamp ?@McIlroyRory is tied for the lead with @XSchauffele at -7. pic.twitter.com/WNN7e7kFuL

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 23, 2022

He finished his round with a 332-yard drive on the short par-4 ninth, and a simple 44-yard pitch nestled inside two feet, setting up his eighth and final birdie in a round with no bogeys. Coming off Brookline, the performance felt like a breath of fresh air.

“It’s like the anti-US Open here,” he said. “It’s like US Open rehab coming here. You’re like, ‘oh, I can actually make some birdies. This is nice.’”

McIlroy also continued what has started to seem like his second full-time job: backing up the PGA Tour. When asked for comments on Jay Monahan’s press conference and the new PGA Tour schedule, he seemed sincerely pleased.

“Some of the things that he said yesterday I think are great,” he said. “Some of the changes that were made to the schedule, to … I think Webb [Simpson] was talking about it, it’ll make the regular season much more competitive. Everyone starts at zero at the start of the year. Everyone has the same opportunity to make the big events with the big prize funds and whatever. I think it’ll make it more competitive and make it a more compelling product, honestly. I think it’ll be good.”

Meanwhile, here are four other takeaways from Day 1 in Cromwell, Conn.

Hello, Xander

Xander Schauffele. Andrew Reaves

Rory shared the first-round lead with JT Poston, who was on 59 watch after making the turn in six-under 29 on the front. Just behind them is Xander Schauffele, who carded a seven-under 63 to finish one off the lead. And he did it with some panache, going a perfect 18 of 18 in greens in regulation.

“It’s been really solid,” he said of his game. “I’ve just been talking to my dad. He thinks I’m tinkering too much. He wants me to do what I did today … focus a lot on land numbers, just numbers in general versus me trying to tinker with my golf swing too much. It kind of made me hone in on targets. I’ve been playing pretty solid, just haven’t really gotten over the hump this year in terms of putting a string of tournaments together that are really good.”

On one hand, Schauffele has made 10 of 12 cuts on the year and is constantly in the top 20. On the other, he’s only had three top-fives, and has faded outside the OWGR top 10 for the first time in more than a year.

When asked if he had ever hit 18 greens before, he said yes, with a catch — he’s done it in practice. As he acknowledged, though, that’s a different story than a perfect GIR round on tour. And unfortunately for him, there’s no respite — it’s a crowded leaderboard at the top, and as history has shown us, you can’t afford to tread water at this course.

Martin Laird matched Schauffele with a 63, while the group at 64 includes a duo of big names in Webb Simpson and Patrick Cantlay. Harris English, the defending champ, stayed close with a 66. This helped.

Please, give us more of the handshake celebrations

There’s something so funny about a player and his caddie shaking hands after a good shot. It’s probably because if you were creating a stereotype of a stuffy golfer, this is what they would do, and it kind of subverts that in a hilarious way. It’s also just extremely funny to turn what should be a fist-pump moment into something so proper and casual. Watch Scheffler and Ted Scott master the form after Scheffler’s chip-in:

A chip-in worthy of a handshake ??

Perfection from Scottie Scheffler @TravelersChamp. pic.twitter.com/zPJdodnFMY

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 23, 2022

Scheffler finished with a 68, still theoretically within shouting distance of the lead.

Spieth-talking-to-his-ball content!!!!

Even when it’s simple, we can’t get enough of this:

Never change, @JordanSpieth ? pic.twitter.com/B9qQb6D9Ik

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 23, 2022

It’s the second best genre in golf, trailing only Spieth-talks-to-caddie-Michael Greller. Unfortunately for Spieth, a disastrous finishing stretch consigned the 2017 Travelers winner to a five-over 75, which isn’t very far from the absolute bottom of the leaderboard. Beyond the begging, there was a lot of this.

Joaquin Niemann is top of the flops

One more video for you, because there hasn’t been a successful flop shot yet that wasn’t beautiful to watch. Here’s Niemann, working with very, very little green:

Tasty.

What a flop shot from @JoacoNiemann ? pic.twitter.com/gJpvD14g6u

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 23, 2022

Chef’s kiss, Joaquin. Never stop floppin’.

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