Lee Hodges gained the 3M Open this previous weekend in spectacular wire-to-wire trend, racking up a seven-stroke profitable margin – the biggest on the tour in practically three years – to catapult his profession to the subsequent degree. That is nice information for him and his household. However with all due respect to Mr. Hodges, the actual drama on Sunday at TPC Twin Cities in Minnesota occurred decrease on the leaderboard.

JT Poston, a two-time PGA Tour winner, climbed to the ultimate tee Sunday, three strokes behind Hodges, however three strokes forward of the subsequent closest competitor. All Poston wanted was a double-bogey on the holeshot and he would take his solo second-place end within the championship, alongside together with his $850,200 regulated wage. Not dangerous for per week’s work.

Poston’s tee shot ended near the water, and that is the place his troubles started, as you possibly can see within the chart under:

Poston was 213 yards from the pin, with an ungainly lie, however as an alternative of making an attempt to pressure his method round the best gap, he selected to go huge…and as you possibly can see from the quantity 2’s place there, he despatched his method right into a watery grave. The method got here up quick, as he navigated boulders across the inexperienced to bounce again and hit a 3M marker float within the close to water:

After taking the penalty, Poston put up 98 yards. However his second try at a more in-depth once more got here up quick, and as soon as he reached the inexperienced, he missed a five-foot penalty that may have given him that valuable double-bogey. The end result: a triple bogey 8, placing him again right into a tie for third with Martin Laird and Kevin Strellman.

So, as an alternative of getting $850,200 for himself, Poston needed to settle for “a mere” $590,200, one-third of the prize pool for second, third, and fourth locations. (Laird and Streelman ended up with a surprisingly free and sudden $130,000 every, in order that they higher catch dinner each time they see Poston for the subsequent decade.)

For his half, Poston took the aggressive method once more on Twitter:

“Not right here to complete second,” he wrote. “You attempt to win. I make that call 10 instances out of 10 given the circumstances.”

Ranked forty ninth on the FedExCup standings after Sunday, Poston may have extra probabilities to win this season. We’ll see if he takes the identical method if the alternatives current themselves.