Finishing runner-up at the Travelers Championship, Poston opened his John Deere Classic in ideal fashion to shoot a 9-under 62. Not looking back, the 29-year-old went on to post rounds of 65-67-69 to finish at 21 under and three moves away from his closest pursuers Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Emiliano Grillo. Despite having a three-hole lead going into the final round and winning by that margin, there were some hairy moments on his back nine. After firing out of the gates with three consecutive birdies, Poston began to take on water when he bogeyed the fifth and sixth holes. It was a testing par on the par-3 seventh that steadied the ship as he would go on to make nine straight pars, forcing other players to attack the pins while he coasted along. Poston added another birdie on the par-5 17th for good measure and extended his lead back to where he started the day. Poston was cool, calm and collected, never blinking in the face of adversity. Seeing his lead shrink to just one stroke on the inside nine, he held firm and as a reward for his hard work will appear on the PGA Tour for years to come. Not only will he earn entry into tournaments like the Masters and Players Championship, but also the 150th Open in just two weeks. Ranked 112th in the FedEx Cup just 14 days ago, Poston now sits 22nd in the season-long race and among the titans of the game. Grade: A+ Here’s the breakdown for the rest of the leaderboard at the 2022 John Deere Classic T2. Emiliano Grillo (-18): It has been a difficult season for the Argentine as he has missed 12 cuts in 23 starts. However, on closer inspection, Grillo has now made six of his last seven cuts and made some quality appearances at the RBC Canadian Open and Memorial Tournament. He was able to cut Poston’s lead to a stroke on the back nine, but his inexplicable bogey on the short par-4 14th will be seen as the cause of his weaknesses. As a consolation prize, Grillo climbed 62 spots in the FedEx Cup standings to No. 85 and punched his ticket to the 150th Open in St. Louis. Andrews. Grade A T4. Chris Gotterup (-17): The Haskins Award winner was fantastic in his John Deere Classic debut. Entering the tournament through a sponsor exemption, Gotterup wrote a letter to the tournament committee and was granted his request. That result puts him into the finals of the Korn Ferry Tour and nearly did the same for the Open Championship as the top three finishers in the top 10 booked their trips to St. Andrews. While Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau began their careers with wins at TPC Deere Run, Gotterup did the same albeit without the hardware to show for it. “Yeah, just more validation that I belong here,” Gotterup said. “And honestly, I didn’t have my best stuff this week. Hit it amazing, but I putt really bad until I got down. So, yeah, you pick up stuff along the way. Yeah, I’m drawing from my experiences like Puerto Rico and the last couple.” Grade A T6. Denny McCarthy (-16): It looked like the perfect storm for McCarthy coming into the week, but it wasn’t meant to be. A member of the penultimate group on Sunday, the University of Virginia product went the wrong way early in his round and will likely be kicking himself for it. Despite the recent disappointment, McCarthy is still in the midst of the best season of his career and has opened well since a missed cut at the Travelers Championship. He often describes himself as a “grinder,” so while he’s shown he can compete in these birdie fests, his top-10 finishes at the Memorial Tournament and the US Open may mark his first win on a tougher golf course. . Grade: B+ T16. Sahith Theegala (-12): He almost missed the cut but showed some determination after opening the John Deere Classic with a 3-over 74. Shooting back-to-back rounds of 65 and capping his week with a 68, Theegala climbed into the top 20 all the way of the tournament. With that effort, the Rookie of the Year candidate has now made 11 straight cuts by himself with his omission on the final weekend coming into the Players Championship in March. While it can occasionally be erratic, those peaks and valleys have a way of smoothing out over the course of a tournament. A two-time podium finisher in 2022, including a runner-up at the Travelers Championship, it’s only a matter of time before Theegala scores his first PGA Tour win. Grade: B Rick Gehman, Greg DuCharme and Kyle Porter recap the John Deere Classic and discuss the biggest takeaways from LIV Golf Portland. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
