J.T. Poston hits his tee shot on Thursday on the 2nd hole at TPC Deere Run.
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J.T. Poston calls it “a confidence thing.” You may know it as trending. Or snowballing. Or being on fire, if you like it warmer. It’s certainly something. Two months ago, he tied for third at the RBC Heritage. Then he tied for ninth last month at the Wells Fargo. Then he tied for second last week at the Travelers, where he shot a first-round 62, the same number he signed for on Thursday at TPC Deere Run.
“It’s a confidence thing,” he said. “… Soon as you do it a few times, you can have a few good rounds, good tournaments, then your confidence starts building and you can get on a nice run.”
And he is in the midst of one. The good times rolled on during the John Deere Classic first round, where he shot nine-under and grabbed a two-stroke lead over Michael Gilgic, and a three-stroke advantage over Vaughn Taylor and Christopher Gotterup.
Can it continue for Poston? Why not? These things tend to come in bunches.
“I would say for the last few months it’s been in a good spot,” he said. “Just hadn’t quite seen the results. Then Hilton Head I had a good week, Wells Fargo, good week, last week playing well.
“So I think it’s starting to kind of come together and see the results and see the shots and kind of building that confidence back into my ball striking.”
3:11 p.m. — Joseph Bramlett, Curtis Thompson, Sean McCarty
3:22 p.m. — Chase Seiffert, Nick Hardy, Nathan Petronzio
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Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.