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.”
Not out here to finish 2nd. Trying to win. Would make that decision 10 times out of 10 under circumstances https://t.co/GHsIErHCilJuly 30, 2023
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."
