J.T. Poston Flips Script on Season, Wins Memorial Tournament in Playoff

At the inaugural Memorial Tournament, 50 years ago, a three-hole aggregate playoff was needed to determine a champion, with Roger Maltbie ultimately besting Hale Irwin.

A half-century later, as Jack Nicklaus’s storied event marks a milestone, the tournament again wouldn’t be decided in regulation. This time, it was J.T. Poston and Ryan Gerard, although a sudden-death format is now in place.

The two exchanged pars on the first go-round, with Poston missing an 8-footer for the win. So they went back to Muirfield Village’s par-4 18th tee box.

And only one more hole was needed.

They each missed the fairway on opposite sides. Yet both would face par putts inside 10 feet. Gerard, from 6 feet, missed his, and Poston, from 4 feet, didn’t.

Moments later, he walked up to the Golden Bear himself for the most coveted handshake in golf.

“Sorry somebody had to lose,” Nicklaus said.

Poston, of course, is glad it wasn’t him.

“Told myself I wanted to—I knew I was going to shake Jack’s hand walking off 18,” Poston said on the 18th green, “and I wanted to be proud of that handshake regardless of how it turned out. So I’m thrilled it happened this way.”

J.T. Poston gets his moment @MemorialGolf. pic.twitter.com/08DobK3nNo
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 7, 2026

Needing to finish the third round Sunday morning after the weather suspended play Saturday, Poston raced out to a four-stroke lead entering the final round.

However, with three holes left to play, there was a four-way tie.

But eventually, mishaps began to happen on the diabolical layout.

Tommy Fleetwood, who eagled No. 15, dropped a shot on No. 17, laying up from a gnarly lie next to the left fairway bunker. Sam Burns bogeyed the same hole, with his approach catching the bridge over the water lining the green. He then narrowly missed a 12-footer for birdie on the last.

Wyndham Clark made a run, too, with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16, but couldn’t get to 12 under and join the playoff with two closing pars.

So, for a moment, Gerard was in the driver’s seat. On No. 15, en route to a birdie, he chipped from 100 yards in the rough to 6 feet. Then, he rolled in a 36-footer for birdie on No. 17 for the outright lead.

But he knew the job wasn’t finished.

“[Winning] never even crossed my mind,” Gerard said. “I knew where I stood on the leaderboard. I didn’t think I had won the golf tournament. That was just a really big putt in the moment and the emotion that kind of came out was like a day of grinding, really.”

Poston almost felt forgotten. Losing strokes off the tee, the first Memorial champion in the ShotLink era to do that, he was three over on his round through 13.

“I’m not a quitter, so I hung in there and I just told myself—I mean, I hit a great putt on 13, right where I wanted and just didn’t fall,” Poston said. “But I told myself on 14 tee—I was one back with five to go, still felt like I had a chance.”

Two birdies ensued. Then, on the 72nd hole, he hit his approach to 7 feet and made the birdie putt, capping a final-round 72.

Nearly 30 minutes later, he had recorded his first top 10 of the season, to say the least.

This was the 33-year-old’s fourth—and biggest—PGA Tour win. Yet, it came as a surprise. Poston had fallen to No. 94 in the world (becoming the the lowest-ranked player to claim the Memorial since William McGirt in 2016), with his best finish this season entering the Memorial a T21 at the Valero Texas Open. Now, he doesn’t have to play in a U.S. Open qualifier tomorrow.

“I sort of told myself in the playoff that this is my U.S. Open qualifier,” Poston said.

From Maltbie to Poston, Memorial champions come in all shapes and sizes.

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