CROMWELL, Conn. — By the time J.T. Poston’s group reached the ninth green in the Travelers Championship first round on Thursday, the once very large crowd had significantly cleared. He got there just after 5:30 p.m. on a day that began for some at6:45 a.m. The field was stacked into the late morning and early afternoon and not many people knew who Poston was, anyway.
Nonetheless, he birdied his final hole of the day to finish Round 1 at 8-under-par 62, tied for the lead with world No. 2 Rory McIlroy.
Entering Travelers, Poston was ranked No. 162 in the world. The 29-year-old was born in Hickory, N.C., now lives in Georgia and attended Western Carolina University, where he won two consecutive Southern Conference titles.
