JT Poston Holds Off Late Doug Ghim Challenge To Claim Third PGA Tour Title At Shriners Children’s Open

JT Poston held off the challenge of Doug Ghim to claim his third PGA Tour title at the Shriners Children’s Open.

The early rounds of the TPC Summerlin tournament were affected by poor weather, and that meant Saturday's third-round needed to be completed on Sunday morning. By the time the players were back in the clubhouse. Poston sat on top of the leaderboard with a three-shot lead, with Ghim his nearest rival.

Poston, Ghim and 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Kurt Kitayama, who began the round four off the lead, were the last to go out.

All three made solid starts as Poston reached the turn at two-under for the round. Despite that, by then, Ghim had reduced the gap to just one with two birdies on the front nine and an eagle at the par-5 ninth, which included an excellent second shot to see him onto the green and give Poston something to think about.

Kitayama also kept in touch, with three birdies as they headed to the 10^th. However, he was the first to fade, with a bogey on the 10^th and a double bogey on the 12^th as Ghim remained in contention with the likes of Davis Thompson, KH Lee, Rico Hoey, Matti Schmid and Michael Kim all still in the running.

However, Poston was still showing the remarkable consistency that had last seen him make a bogey on the 11th hole of his second round. He made par at the 10th and 11th before claiming back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th as he regained the three-shot advantage he had enjoyed at the beginning of the round as Ghim was beset by a run of pars between the 10th and 15th.

It got even better for Poston at the 15^th with his fifth birdie of the day to increase his lead to four with just three holes to play.

There was a glimmer of hope for Ghim when he reduced the gap to three at the 16th with a birdie after Poston could only make par. That lead became just two with one to play when Poston made his first bogey in 42 holes by missing his par putt left.

Ghim continued to make a fight of it on the 18th, and nearly found the hole with his second shot onto the green. In the end, he had a decent chance of a birdie while Poston was left lining up a long birdie putt needing a par to win it.

His first effort came up short before Ghim reduced the lead to one with his fourth birdie of the round. With the pressure all on Poston to make par, he calmy rolled in his putt to claim his third PGA Tour title.