J.T. Poston Loses $260k On Final Hole Of 3M Open, Offers Up Dumb Tagline About 'Trying To Win' Despite Having No Shot At Actually Winning
J.T. Poston lost more than a quarter of a million dollars with one swing on the final hole of the 3M Open on Sunday. Some are praising his non-regretful post-round message about 'playing to win,' but in reality, he didn't have a shot at actually winning.
Standing on the Par 5 18th tee Sunday, Poston trailed tournament leader and eventual winner Lee Hodges by three shots and had a three-shot cushion over the group of players tied for third. The only chance Poston had at forcing a playoff was to make eagle on the final hole and hope Hodges would bogey the closing hole for the first time all week.
Hodges elected to lay up with his second shot leaving himself 115 yards to the flag for his third. The chances of Hodges making a bogey from 115 yards in the fairway laying two, even with water in front of the green, are close to zero.
Poston is completely aware that at the very worst Hodges is going to make par on the final hole, which means he needs to hole out for a double eagle from 213 yards out while playing off a downhill lie from the rough to potentially force a playoff.
The odds of this happening are exponentially worse than Hodges making a mess of the hole from 115 yards, but despite knowing that he has zero chance of actually forcing a playoff, Poston went for the green in two and found the water.
He eventually walked off the 72nd green with a triple bogey eight, which put him in a tie for third taking his paycheck from $850,000 to just over $590,000. Poston jumped on Twitter after lighting a quarter of a million dollars on fire and explained he was "trying to win."
The one leg Poston has to stand on after the nightmare finish is that he had just 213 yards into the green on 18. There isn't one PGA Tour player who is laying up from 213 yards, and he likely would have gotten chirped to oblivion by every single one of his buddies on Tour, but given the circumstance there was zero to gain and a quarter million dollars to lose in that situation.
What makes the whole scenario even more questionable is after finding the drink with his second shot, Poston elected to lay up with his fourth shot from 15 yards further back in the fairway after taking his penalty drop. I guess he was taking the potential for a 'Tin Cup' moment out of the equation.
Poston's missed five-footer for double bogey was the dagger that ultimately ended his quest for a solo second.
It's just the stereotypical 'I'm not out here to finish second' post-round message that truly missed the mark.
It actually is okay to play for second when that's quite literally all there is to play for, especially when the difference between second and third place is over $250,000.
Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris