After a two-month break vacationing and playing with his now 6-month-old daughter and putting his clubs away to refresh, J.T. Poston hung on Sunday to claim his third PGA Tour trophy with a one-shot win over Doug Ghim at the Shriners Children’s Open.
Poston posted rounds of 64-65-66-67 to shoot 22-under-par at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada, prevailing at a course where he tied for third last year. He nearly coughed up a four-shot lead with three to play, but buried a 4-footer on 18 after Ghim drained a 6-footer to apply the pressure.
“It kind of felt like a grind all day,” said Poston, known on tour as the Postman. “I knew I had a comfortable lead for most of the day, but it just never felt safe. I felt like I was just plodding around.”
Poston, whose previous wins came in the 2019 Wyndham Championship and 2022 John Deere Classic, came into Vegas fresh and confident. He took two months off since his last start at the BMW Championship in August, enjoying a long vacation in the mountains and focusing more on spending time with his daughter born last spring than golf.
“Just sort of reset. Put the clubs away for several weeks, which was nice,” he said. “That’s the benefit of having that much time off. I can kind of put them away and get the rest that I need and then have plenty of time to gear up for this week. … Just being at home and being a dad has been the greatest gift.”
After finishing his third round Sunday morning, Poston started the final round with a three-shot lead over Ghim. He pushed it to four strokes with an opening birdie, but by the time they reached the turn, Ghim had trimmed the deficit to just one with an eagle on the ninth.
Ghim – the former No. 1 amateur and teammate of Scottie Scheffler at Texas looking for his first professional win – had a good chance to forge a tie at the 11th, but his 7-footer for birdie was tentative and pulled up short.
Looking for a spark to regain control after seven straight pars, Poston tumbled in a 21-foot birdie on the 12th and followed it with another on the par-5 13th to boost his lead back to three shots heading to the five finishing holes on which he’d excelled in the first three rounds, going 11-under.
Ghim squandered another good birdie look from inside 8 feet on 14 and Poston made another birdie at the short 15th to go up by four. But Poston failed to birdie the par-5 16th and missed a 4-footer on 17 for his only bogey of the day to let his lead dwindle to just two before eking it out on the 18th.
“I felt like I wasn’t quite as sharp with the scoring clubs today,” said Poston, who earned $1.26 million from the $7 million purse. “It was nice to get a few on the back and take advantage of some of the birdie holes.”
“Trying to lock up my playing privileges for next year, the Players and all that. So a good relief, but also know I still have to keep playing well in the next two or three events.”
Michael Kim
Michael Kim fired a 9-under 62 on Sunday to hurtle up the leaderboard and finish T5 at 18-under, moving inside the top 125 at 112th as he tries to secure his PGA Tour card for 2025.
“Trying to get inside that 125, it’s huge. Trying to lock up my playing privileges for next year, the Players and all that,” Kim said. “So a good relief, but also know I still have to keep playing well in the next two or three events.”
Gary Woodland started the final round tied for third but stumbled with a double bogey on the par-4 third, the hardest hole at TPC Summerlin. His T9 finish, however, backs up a T16 two weeks ago at the Sanderson Farms Championship as the 2019 U.S. Open champion starts to look more like his old self this fall.
In September 2023, doctors had to cut a baseball-sized hole in the side of Woodland’s skull to remove most of a benign tumor on the part of his brain that controlled fear.
“The last month has been really good,” Woodland said. “I just hit a year a couple weeks ago, so that’s exciting. It’s all coming together. I’m feeling better and the game is coming around, which makes a lot of sense.
“I’m excited to start feeling better and see great things in my game.”
Scott Michaux