The player from North Caroline feels very happy after hitting 68 strokes
JT Poston’s with us now at the 107th PJ Championship. JT, uh, three under 68 for you today. How would you summarize your performance? Um, it was good. I don’t It might be my lowest round at this golf course over the years, so I’ll definitely take it. Um, I haven’t had a ton of success here with the Wells Fargo or Truis Championship now, but um, you know, I’m obviously from North Carolina, so I like like being back in the home state and just it was one of those days. I hit it really good and didn’t make too many mistakes and made a few putts as well. That’s great. Questions like seven. Uh, you mentioned the North Carolina part of being from Hickory. How cool is it to have an event that’s, I guess, an hour from where you grew up? Yeah, it’s great. I mean, this is last year I got a little taste of it with the US Open being in Pinehurst and playing a major in your home state and there’s a lot of familiar faces, a lot of family, a lot of friends. Um, get a lot of hickory shouts, some Western Carolina shouts. So, it’s it’s fun. I mean, I I love playing in front of the home crowd and so today was was no different and um you know, hopefully I can keep it going and and have something to root for on Sunday. Over to Mike two, please. JT, you told me yesterday you weren’t going to try and go out and shoot eight under and be in the lead on the first round. You were you were right, but you got close. What went right today? Uh, I just I hit it really good. Um, I drove it pretty well. I don’t know really what my stats were, but I felt like I hit a lot of fairways and greens and just feel like I had good control of my golf ball. So, um, you got to do that around here. Uh, I know it’s a big golf course and a lot of people were talking about you have to hit it far, which you do, but I think you definitely got to hit it in the fairway as well just because the rough can still be penal and um, you know, these greens are great. So, I feel like if I can just give myself a lot of chances, I can I can make some birdies for sure. Back to Mike Gate. So, so you would think that regular conditions, I mean, or the conditions of a PGA Tour event will be more f favorable, but it looks like you’re playing better in a PGA championship condition. No, honestly, I was impressed with how much it had dried out this morning. Um, you know, we obviously played it down and I thought it was going to be very wet, but it was it’s the course is drying out fast, so I’m sure it’ll get to those conditions pretty quick, but you know, it’s it’s it’s it’s a long golf course. It plays long during the truest and it plays it plays long this week. So, um, you got to be you got to be good off the tea and you got to be good with those long irons for me, mid irons maybe for some other guys. So, uh, but it’s still, you know, it’s fair. You can you can still give yourself looks and there’s plenty of birdie holes and, you know, if you if you hit it solid, you can shoot a good score. Any recent memories of being in this position the first day of a major? Not really. uh kind of unfamiliar territory, but you know, I think what I have learned over the years is you can’t win the golf tournament on Thursday and you know, I think I’m just going to go out there and try and stay in my own lane and um you know, see where we stack up on Sunday, but and not try and get too caught up in watching the leaderboard and where I stand. Todd, when you were growing up in Hickory, did you play here at all? I never did. First time I played it was was the tour event. Can you remember um as a kid maybe in high school when you having a state championship runs? What was the coolest course you played that you wanted to play for the first time? Sorry, say that again. The coolest. So when Yeah. The course that you wanted to play that was like a championship course and you got to play it growing up in this area. What was it? This was definitely one of them. I mean I I I didn’t really grow up coming to this golf tournament and watching it live even though we were so close. But I obviously know from watching it over the years. I remember watching Rory win his first tour event here and making that long putt on 18 and um you know just watching the guys win over the years. So this is definitely up there. I mean Piner number two is is obviously another one um got to check that off the list last year, but I had played number two a few times uh in some big junior and am events and um quail was a little different. I I had never got a taste of it, never got to play it until my maybe second year on tour. Um, so I love it. I mean, again, it’s you’re playing in front of a home crowd, so a lot of familiar faces and it’s it’s a fun week and I’d love to, you know, keep this going and and finish this week off. Back to Mike 7. Do you have to get a bigger rental house this week for all the people or are they just driving in every day? No, most of them are driving in. We’ve got a we’ve got a house for just my wife and our daughter and um gives us our own little space to kind of unwind a little bit. Um, but we’ve got plenty of family here and we’ve been we’ll do some dinners and um my sister and brother-in-law live 5 minutes down the road. So, um, we’ll we’ll hang out over there and, you know, get our mind off the golf, which is probably a good thing. I imagine it’s a double-edged sword of playing with that many people because if the round goes bad, the night could, you know, sour a little bit. How satisfying are is this tonight going to be for you? I mean, it’s very early. I again I’m not getting ahead of myself. It’s a great start. I’m happy with it. But you’re not you can’t win the golf tournament on Thursdays. There’s there’s a lot of lot of golf left. A lot of you know it’s a hard golf course. So you got to kind of stay. It’s cliche, but one shot at a time and um not get too ahead of yourself. And I’d say I don’t really have the results in majors to prove that, but I feel like I’ve played enough of them now to I’ve learned that and you know hopefully I can apply it a little better this week. Over to Mike Tup. So, you have the chance to have your best first round finish at a major ever, T12 in 2020 at Harding Park. Um, you ended up finishing T75 there. What has to go differently this time around to have a productive weekend? I think just leaning on the experience. I think Harding Park was one of my first majors. Maybe it wasn’t my first one, but it was it still felt very early um in my major career. And again, like I’ve learned over the years that it’s it’s you got to stay patient in these weeks and it’s they’re hard weeks. The golf course tends to get harder and harder as the week goes on. And um you know, it’s it’s there’s a lot of golf left. So I think for me, I’m just going to go out there and try and do exactly what I did today tomorrow. And we’ll see where we end up at after tomorrow. And then I’m going to do the same thing on Saturday and then the same thing on Sunday. So, it’s I know it’s cliche, but that’s it’s kind of the approach that I’ve got to take and I’ve learned that I’ve got to take over the years. And, you know, again, hopefully I can execute that a little better this year. Thanks for your time, JT. All right. Thanks, guys.
