'Not Out Here To Finish 2nd' - Poston After Final Hole Agony Costs Him $260k

JT Poston made a costly triple bogey on the 72nd hole at the 3M Open chasing winner Lee Hodges until the end

JT Poston looks on as Lee Hodges is hugged by his partner
(Image credit: Getty Images)

American PGA Tour pro JT Poston was defiant after he went in the water chasing an eagle at the last which cost him $260,000 at the 3M Open.

With one hole to play, Poston trailed playing partner and 3M Open leader Lee Hodges by three shots. He needed something special on the par 5 18th hole, which is a dogleg around water measuring 577 yards.

With Hodges laying up to wedge distance with his second shot, Poston, nicknamed the Postman, went for the green in two out of the rough across the water from over 200 yards but couldn’t deliver as his ball ended up in the drink via the rocks.

Hodges then stuck his third shot from 115 yards to set-up a tap-in birdie to finish at 24 under for the title as Poston went on to card a triple bogey eight, dropping from outright runner-up at 20-under to a three-way tie for second at 17-under.

It was an expensive triple, as CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter pointed out on Twitter afterwards: “J.T. Poston needed to make a 7 at the last to wrap up solo second and win $850K. He made an 8 to fall into T-2 and win $590K. A $260K hole,” he tweeted.

Poston saw the tweet and responded. “Not out here to finish 2nd,” Poston wrote. “Trying to win. Would make that decision 10 times out of 10 under circumstances.”

Poston would have earned $850,000 had he finished alone in second but the pro, who is 49th in the FedEx Cup points list, insisted afterwards he had no regrets .

He said: "We were trying to do something special and try and win. I wouldn't want to be sleeping wondering: 'what if' if I had just laid it up instead of trying to go for it. No regrets on the decision. 

"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 three there at the end and put some pressure on Lee. 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. We had 220 to the pin and 215 to cover. It was just getting it up in the air, that was the hard part out of the rough. The lie, it was sitting pretty good, which is why we gave it a shot. 

"If we can somehow make three and put some pressure on Lee or hit one in there close and give it a shot, who knows. But Lee played great all day. We knew it was going to take something pretty special to pull it off."

James Nursey
Contributor

James Nursey is a freelance contributor to Golf Monthly after spending over 20 years as a sports reporter in newspapers. During a 17-year career with the Daily Mirror, he covered mainly football but reported from The Open annually and also covered a Ryder Cup and three US Opens. He counts a pre-tournament exclusive with Justin Rose at Merion in 2013 as one of his most memorable as the Englishman went on to win his first Major and later repeated much of the interview in his winner’s speech.  Now, after choosing to leave full-time work in newspapers, James, who is a keen single-figure player, is writing about golf more.  His favourite track is the Old Course after attending St Andrews University but has since played mainly at Edgbaston, where he is on the honours board. He is an active member of the Association of Golf Writers and Press Golfing Society but his favourite round is playing the game with his children. James is currently playing:  Driver: Ping G400 3 wood: Ping i20 Hybrid: Ping i20 Irons: Ping i500 4-SW Wedges: Ping Glide forged 50, 56 Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour Ball: Titleist ProVI