Quiet J.T. Poston gets loud in Quad Cities
You won’t see or hear J.T. Poston coming.
He prefers to reside in the shadows, his walk deliberate, his voice soft, his demeanor definitely in the category of low-key. Flash isn’t his style as his attire would be classified as conservative. He’s a bit vanilla if you will.
But from time to time the 29-year-old gets loud.
Coming off a tie for second behind Xander Schauffele in last week’s Travelers Championship, Poston kept posting resounding numbers on his scorecard in Thursday’s first round of the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois.
Looking for his second PGA Tour title – he won the 2019 Wyndham Championship – Poston rode some big moments to a bogey-free, 9-under-par 62 to grab a sizable lead.
The 62 matched his career low, which he set last week in the first round.
In what is an annual birdie festival in the Quad Cities, Poston put plenty of red numbers on his card, the final one from 30 feet for birdie on his final hole of the day. Starting on the 10th, he made four birdies before the turn, then added a birdie on the first and an eagle on the second after he rifled his approach from 260 yards to 20 feet. Two holes later, he holed out from 25 yards from a greenside bunker for another birdie.
“The bunker shot on four is just kind of when you, you kind of turn around and I looked at (caddie Aaron) Flener like, did that really happen?” he said. “I think it was the first green that I missed, and to hole it out and make birdie, you’re not really thinking you’re going to make it, but when you do, you just realize it could be one of those days.”
It was one of those days and left Poston with the largest lead he’s ever held after a round in his career. And Poston needed it to get to the top of the leaderboard. Vaughn Taylor shot 65, Ricky Barnes, Denny McCarthy and Monday qualifier Chris Naegel each posted 66. Scott Stallings led a group at 67, Emiliano Grillo a group at 68.
The wind picked up shortly after the afternoon wave took to the course and the scores reflected that. Dylan Frittelli posted the best score in that wave, a 66; Michael Gligic was 7 under through 17.
Poston, as is his nature, gave some of the credit to his coach, John McNeeley.
“I worked really hard on the golf swing. (McNeeley) and I have worked on the golf swing a little bit from a technical standpoint in the last year,” Poston said. “I would say for the last few months it’s been in a good spot. Just hadn’t quite seen the results. Then Hilton Head I had a good week, Wells Fargo, good week, last week playing well. So I think it’s starting to kind of come together and see the results and see the shots and kind of building that confidence back into my ball striking.”
Poston knows he has to keep running in birdie putts to have a chance Sunday; the highest winning score since 2009 was 18 under. “I think tomorrow, regardless of where I stand starting the day, I am going to try and go out there and shoot another number like that or shoot another solid 5-, 6-under. Just stay aggressive and not just kind of coast.”