Wire-To-Wire: J.T. Poston Delivers Victory At John Deere

J.T. Poston made a very early statement Sunday at TPC Deere Run as he started with three birdies that helped him march to his second PGA Tour victory at the John Deere Classic.

Poston got himself to 22-under par and built himself a four-shot lead after four holes but wins rarely come that easy on the PGA Tour.  Bogeys at the fifth and sixth holes brought Emiliano Grillo into the picture along with a few others.  But Poston put it on full tour grind and rolled off 10 straight pars before he put things away with a nice birdie at the 17th, giving him a three-shot lead to help him handle the last hole.

Poston closed with 69 and a 21-under par total, three clear of Christiian Bezuidenhout and Grillo.

Rookie Chris Gotterup finished at 17-under, tied with Scott Stallings for fourth and put himself into the Korn Ferry Tour finals.

As for Poston, he was steady down the stretch and became the first wire-to-wire winner at the Deere in 30 years.

“Wire to wire, having the lead for that long, it’s just hard not to think about it and think about that finish line all week,” Poston said after the win.  ” I tried to stick to the game plan, we got off to a great start and then kind of started to try and give some back, but hit a lot of good shots down the stretch.”

Poston threw some praise at his caddie, Aaron Flener.  “Flener did a great job of keeping my head in it and keeping me focused on the next one. I was just trying to breathe. There were a lot of nerves, a lot more than the first few days, and I was just trying to battle through them. After today, after this week, I feel like I know I can play with those nerves and I can still win, I can still shoot a solid score considering the pressure.”

John Deere Scoreboard:

Gotterup Keeps His Promise To John Deere Committee:

College Player Of The Year Chris Gotterup wrote to the John Deere Classic, asking for a sponsor’s exemption.  In it he wrote:

“I want to thank you for your consideration and assure you that if I were fortunate enough to receive an exemption, I would make you and the tournament proud.”

Gotterup delivered with a final round 66 that earned him that tie for fourth with Scott Stallings.

“I honestly forgot I wrote that part, so it’s pretty cool that it came to fruition,” Gotterup said. “It’s been an awesome week and a special week at a really cool place that I’ll probably be coming back to hopefully for a long time.”

Gotterup’s previous best Tour finish came earlier this year as an amateur when he tied for seventh at the Puerto Rico Open. Since turning pro, Gotterup has made three of four cuts, including at the U.S. Open, where he shared 43rd place.

In those starts, he tallied 32 non-member FedExCup points. After adding 122.5 points to that haul on Sunday, he likely has secured his place in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, where 25 PGA Tour cards will be up for grabs.

He just has to finish the regular season with more non-member points than the No. 200 player in the FedExCup.

Entering this week, Aaron Baddeley was on that number with 73 points. He’ll need to get to 287 points (the equivalent on No. 150 last season) to earn special temporary status and unlimited sponsor exemptions.

“Just more validation that I do belong out here,” said Gotterup, who is in the field for next week’s Barbasol Championship by way of his top-10 finish. “And honestly, I didn’t have my greatest stuff this week. Hit it amazing, but just putted pretty poorly until coming down the stretch.”