JT Poston held off a spirited Sunday charge from Doug Ghim to claim the third PGA Tour victory of his career at the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.
Already guaranteed access to the 2025 Signature Events as one of the top 50 in the FedEx rankings, 31-year-old Poston entered the final round with a three-stroke lead and he made five birdies with his only bogey coming on 17 to sign for a closing four-under 67 that saw him reach -22, edging Ghim by a single stroke.
Ghim had an eagle and four birdies in his six-under 65, including a six-foot birdie at the last that put him on 21-under 263.
With the third round not yet completed when darkness halted proceedings on Saturday, Poston was tied for the lead but birdied three of his five remaining holes on Sunday morning to take control.
Both Poston and Ghim birdied two of their opening eight holes and the lead remained three, but two excellent shots gave Ghim an eagle opportunity on the ninth, and from 11 feet, he found the centre of the cup to reduce the deficit to one and it was very much ‘game on’.
But Poston didn’t panic, and he responded with back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 while Ghim stalled and covered them in level par and the lead was back to three again.
Another Poston birdie on 15 appeared to have it all wrapped up, but Ghim kept chipping away and birdied the par-5 16th and when Poston missed a four-foot par putt on 17, they headed to the 18th tee with Poston’s lead down to two.
And that proved to be just enough, though there was still a little drama as Ghim kept the pressure on by holing a six-footer for birdie to force Poston to hole his four-foot par putt. And he held his nerve, wrapping up his Masters invitation and securing his PGA Tour playing status through 2026.
“I just told myself this is what you dream of – you’ve got a putt to win on the PGA Tour,” Poston said, adding that he’d “just tried to forget” about poor putts on 16 and 17.
“Didn’t make very good strokes on either of them, but I just told myself I’ve made a million of these. Do one more.”
Germany’s Matti Schmid and Rico Hoey of the Philippines both carded closing 66s to share third place on 19-under, while American Michael Kim roared up the leaderboard with a final-round 62 for an 18-under par total, sharing fifth with Davis Thompson and South Korea’s Lee Kyoung-hoon, who both shot 66.
Kim, who has become one of the most popular PGA Tour golfers on ‘X’, was in danger of losing his card as he came into the week ranked 129th but the T5 finish pushes him up to 111th, which is good news for his extensive following.
South Korean Tom Kim was going for three-in-a-row having won this championship in 2022 and 2023, but missed the cut in his bid for a three-peat, as did Seamus Power who missed the opportunity to secure his position in the 50th-60th placings, though he only falls one position to 53rd.