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 become a consistent top-50 player and a now a three-time winner on the PGA Tour.
Poston finished 41st in the FedEx Cup 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.
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 finishing third last season in Las Vegas.
Shriners Children’s Open: Leaderboard | Photos
Poston opened with a bogey-free 64 and tacked on round 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 (65) 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 second, 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,” Ghim said.
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. 117 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 in all en route to posting 62 and his best result in 27 starts this season.
Poston moved ahead 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 added 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 needed to sweat out one more 4-foot par putt to clinch the title. It proved to be a minor blip with his short stick and 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 just told myself I’ve made a million of these and need one more.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Special delivery: ‘The Postman’ J.T. Poston posts third career PGA Tour title at Shriners Children’s Open
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