J.T. Poston Posts 65 For One-Shot Lead at Pga Memorial Leaderboard
J.T. Poston grabbed the pga memorial leaderboard with a 7-under 65 on Friday at Muirfield Village, moving to 9-under 135 and taking a one-shot lead over Ryan Gerard. The round stood out even more because Poston’s score was nine shots better than the field average.
Poston's Birdie Run
Eight birdies drove the round. Poston said the wind setup matched the ball change he made the previous week, and the numbers backed that up as his putter and approach play combined for the best round at the top of the board.
“It’s supposed to help me a little bit in the wind,” he said. “So we felt like today was going to be a good test of that and it obviously performed really well.” When asked whether the golf ball or the putter did the heavier lifting, he answered, “Both,” then added, “The ball got me there, the putter helped me get it in the hole.”
Ryan Gerard At 69
Gerard stayed closest with a 69, the only player within one shot of Poston going into the weekend. He also described how the course changed as the wind picked up, saying, “Seven fairway,” before adding, “I was spraying sunscreen and all of a sudden it started going all over the place.”
“And my caddie was like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s windy now,’” Gerard said. That drop in scoring pressure was echoed elsewhere in the field, with Tommy Fleetwood calling the conditions “pretty brutal, actually,” and Justin Thomas saying, “That was the hardest round of golf that I can remember, major, non-major, it was just insane.”
Thomas Makes The Cut
Thomas holed a 6-foot par putt to make the cut on the number, one of the small but costly swings in a day when survival meant as much as position. Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., finished as the top Canadian at even-par 144.
Poston’s 65 put him in front at the exact point where the tournament starts to narrow, and the field now has to chase him after a day when wind pushed scores far beyond what the leading pair produced. Gerard is the closest threat, Thomas escaped by one putt, and the weekend begins with Poston carrying the margin everyone else has to erase.
