J.T. Poston

Poston's earnings numbers over the past two season have been similar, but he got there in different ways. Two years ago a win propelled him to over $3 million in earnings. This past year, Poston failed to win an event and had only two top-3s, but he did have eight top-10s and he improved his cuts made percentage by 14 points. The worrying part for Poston is that he got very little accomplished from February through July, when he was facing the toughest competition. His best showings during that time came at the 3M Open, the JD Classic and the Scottish Open, not exactly the strongest fields out there. In order to take the next step, Poston will have to prove himself against the best players.

Poston got off to an awful start in 2021-22 with six straight missed cuts. Things started to turn around after he notched a T3 at the RBC Heritage. A few months later Poston would score a T2 at the Travelers and his second career PGA Tour win the next week at the John Deere Classic. He closed out the season with top-25's in four of his last five starts and a spot at the Tour Championship for the first time. A broad look at his results will show that he only made half of his cuts in 30 starts, but the final stats are actually pretty solid. Poston ranekd 38th in SG: Total and 36th in scoring average while gaining strokes in every category. Poston has always been a great putter, but his ball-striking over the summer turned the corner in a big way and makes his prospects for next season more interesting.

Poston made his two top-10s all last season count with a third place at the Sanderson Farms and a runner-up at the Barbasol, but he also doubled his missed cuts from the season prior to 14. Poston ranked outside the top 180 in SG: tee-to-green, but was third on tour in SG: putting. It is just hard to trust him putting together another season where he makes more than $1,500,000 if he can't fix his ball-striking woes.

Poston picked up his first win back at the Wyndham Championship in 2019. This past season was up and down overall, but did feature six top-25s. His putting was very strong, but poor iron play led to a lot of that inconsistency. The 27-year-old was a lot better in that department in the 2018-19 season, so I think we could have a slightly better campaign in 2020-21.

Poston spent the better part of his first two years on the PGA Tour spinning his wheels as he never was able to get much going. That changed this past season, when after months of again spinning his wheels, he broke through at the Wyndham Championship. That win nearly catapulted him into the TOUR Championship, but he missed-out by two spots. It's tough to get a read on Poston as he didn't show much prior to his win late last season, and he has just six top-10s in three seasons on the PGA Tour. The safe play is to avoid him altogether in salary cap formats. He has some value in other formats, but he'll probably regress a bit next season.

Poston failed to sneak into the top-125 during his rookie season, but he turned his partial privileges into full privileges in 2017-18 when he finished 117th on the FedEx points list. Poston accomplished in 22 events last season, what he failed to do in the season prior, which could indicate a significant improvement. Not surprisingly, Poston's improved earnings number was a result of better putting. Poston gained improved from 127th in strokes gained: on-the-green in 2017 to 77th last season. While it's a dramatic improvement, his final ranking of 77th is certainly repeatable. Considering the small investment, Poston might be worth a look in salary cap leagues this season.

At an overall level Poston had a decent rookie campaign, as he made 71 percent of his cuts and posted four top-25s, including one top-10. A closer look reveals a streaky nature to Poston's game, as he made 9 of 10 cuts from February through May but then missed four straight cuts mid-summer and ended the season in mediocrity. With conditional PGA Tour status for 2017-18, Poston will need to find another hot streak despite his limited opportunities if he wants to regain fully-exempt status for next year.

No victories for Poston in 2016 but consistently high finishes ensured him a playing spot on the PGA Tour for 2016-17. That's especially impressive considering he didn't even join the Web.com Tour until June, and in fact played in the Canadian Tour's Qualifying School in March. He finished second twice, the first by shooting a final-round 64 at the Lincoln Land Charity Championship and the next by losing in a playoff at the Digital Ally Open. Couple that with a third in his second event of the year and a T6 in June and Poston quickly earned enough cash to make it to the next stage. The strength of his game is his irons and putter, where he ranked fifth in greens hit and 19th in putting average. Keep that consistency going on the next level and you could have a money machine.