Western Wednesdays
Western Wednesdays
Tee Time ft. JT Poston
PGA Tour golfer and Western Carolina University alumnus JT Poston joins us for Western Wednesdays, sharing his inspiring journey from Hickory, North Carolina to the pinnacle of professional golf. Discover the stories behind his passion for the sport, nurtured by his father and grandfather, leading to a standout collegiate career at WCU. Fresh off his thrilling third PGA Tour victory at the Shriners Children’s Open, JT talks about the unwavering support from the Catamount community and personal milestones, including welcoming his child, Scotty, into the world.
Get a front-row seat to JT's experiences on the professional golf circuit, where he plays alongside legendary figures like Tiger Woods. He recounts the awe of achieving his childhood dream and the importance of mentorship from seasoned golfers at Sea Island. JT reveals how the unexpected presence of Catamount fans across the country has created a unique sense of community, fueling his drive and focus in a challenging sport.
Peek behind the scenes of a week on the PGA Tour with insights from JT on his routine—highlighting the significance of consistency. Learn about his efforts to give back through the JT Poston Invitational, supporting WCU’s men’s golf team and promoting youth golf in Western North Carolina. Hear JT reflect on how personal relationships, from his grandfather's profound influence to his connection with the current WCU team, play a crucial role in a sport often perceived as solitary. Whether you’re a golf enthusiast or simply appreciate a compelling success story, this conversation offers something for everyone.
I'm James Hogan.
Speaker 2:And I'm Stacey Miller, and this is the November 2024 edition of Western Wednesdays.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Western Wednesdays, the show where we talk to WCU alumni who've done really cool, interesting things in their life. And boy oh boy, Stacey Miller, Director of Alumni Engagement, We've got a good one today.
Speaker 2:Great one today JT Poston Class of 2015. Coming to us as the most recently.
Speaker 1:Look, this is okay. So, first of all, this is the November issue of Western Wednesdays coming to you in October on a Friday. You know, we're just going to say at this point we're making things up. By the way, I'm James Hogan, assistant Vice Chancellor. I skipped my own introduction. That's how discombobulated we are. We're recording this like a month and change after we interviewed JT.
Speaker 2:We are. This is recording number two. Go number two of this. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:We'll just acknowledge. You know the place that we're in right now, um, and, and several weeks after hurricane Helene, um, and, and for obvious reasons, folks, you know we've we've had to throw a lot of things around and move things around, but, um, we're so excited to bring this interview with JT Poston, uh, legendary Catamount golfer and now PGA tour win number three. Oh my gosh, if only everybody who was on Western Wednesdays could go out and win a golf tournament right after and a $1.2 million purse after that.
Speaker 2:It's a direct connection. Huge, huge. I think that that's going to happen. A plus B, that's right.
Speaker 1:Make sure you put in your requests to be on Western Wednesdays at alumni at wcuedu. I don't want to wait too long to get in this interview, but I know you had a great time catching up with JT. You've known him for a long time.
Speaker 2:A long time.
Speaker 1:He just welcomed a new member, scotty, into his family, had his kiddo born in March. So many big things going on for JT. He's got win number three under his belt, his first win down at the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas. A four-foot putt right at the end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and watching that video, I mean you don't get tired of it. I loved I don't know how many times actually I watched Bryant Odom, former men's golf coach who was JT's coach. His wife, abby, videoed Bryant watching that last four-foot putt and it was just so awesome, all the feels it was a one-shot victory. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We interviewed JT at the JT Post and Invitational, which is why you're going to see us talking to JT at the Waynesville Inn and Golf Club and, first of all, beautiful facility. But I also happen to know Sunday when JT won at the Shriners in Las Vegas. A bunch of catamounts in the clubhouse watching television on Sunday cheering him on when he made that four-foot putt for the win. Huge deal, a lot of purple, a lot of celebration out there in Waynesville, right where we had this interview. So Stacey, I think we let's get into it?
Speaker 2:I think we do it.
Speaker 1:JT Poston. Welcome to Western Wednesdays. We're so excited to have you here on the show. Thanks for spending time with us today. I want to just start off by asking you how did you get into playing golf? Were you a kid? Was this a first time out?
Speaker 3:You were five, or how did that happen? Yeah, so I mean my dad and my grandfather played a lot of golf growing up. My grandfather was a really good player and so I started at a young age just kind of following them to the range and fell in love with it pretty early on, and I think they like to joke that it was hard to kind of drag me off the range or off the putting green a lot of times, I just fell in love with it right away.
Speaker 3:So from a young age I've just always had a passion for it.
Speaker 1:So that's in Hickory, North Carolina, where you're from. Were you playing courses around there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my dad was a member at Lake Hickory Country Club so I grew up playing there. I was fortunate there were a lot of young kids that were playing at the time, Summertime or even just weekends. My parents would drop me off at the golf course at 8 o'clock in the morning and they'd pick me up when the sun went down. It was perfect for a kid growing up. I spent all day at the golf course and I loved it. Probably ran up a little bit too many tabs on chicken fingers and honey mustard and french fries and stuff.
Speaker 3:It was great, it was perfect.
Speaker 1:There's nothing like following your dad or your granddad around on a golf course.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:So how does that translate then to getting to Western right? There's a lot of kids out there playing a lot of sports and not a lot of them make it to the Division I level right. So, how does that translate into you know, being a kid and following these people around to becoming a real thing and Division I college athlete at Western.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my grandfather, like I said, was a really good player and he played some senior amateur events and some tournaments and stuff and for me it started as playing golf tournaments. Um, I, I'm a competitive person in everything that I do and so I it was like naturally and pretty pretty soon I wanted to play golf tournaments. And so that you know that whole process of junior golf and and getting recruited and amateur golf and um, yeah, I, yeah, I mean I was, I knew I wanted pretty early on, I knew I wanted to play college golf and so, um, you know, the whole junior golf um process and recruiting process is is was fun and and um, I was happy to land at Western and it was a good fit right away. Um, when I did my visits and stuff, I you know meeting at the time Carter Chavis was the head coach and, um, he was from Morganton, like 30 minutes down the road from where I grew up, and it was just a good, it was a good fit. I love the mountain golf. Uh, that Western provided.
Speaker 1:It's a different, different kind of golf course. Right, it's different, but you know being in it.
Speaker 3:being from Hickory, I was familiar with it and, um, I I just loved it and and I knew that it was a place that I could go and and play right away, but also continue to to, you know, grow, you know, improve my game and get pushed. So it was, it was a good fit.
Speaker 1:When you got to Cullowhee, um, and you were, you know, brand new freshmen um, you're out there on the course as as a competitive D1 golfer, um, was it different? Did you? Did you get a sense of like, oh, this is really a new level. And how did you respond to that?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I think I was a little naive. I think that sort of hit maybe towards the end of my first semester but my first few tournaments. I was just so excited to be playing college golf and it's what I've loved to do since I was a kid right. So I was just having fun playing tournaments and playing with my teammates and competing and I think kind of sort of realizing that level that probably hit maybe further into that first semester or further into that freshman year, but it definitely is. I mean, these guys at this level are really good and you saw that firsthand playing those tournaments.
Speaker 1:JT, who was important to you in your time as a collegiate student at Western.
Speaker 3:Two people come to mind my grandfather, who I spoke about earlier. Like I said, he got me into the game and he was always very passionate about it and he was a big sort of influence on me developing as a golfer as a kid and and getting to this level, and we always had kind of together, had a dream of like playing college golf, playing, turning professional, playing, professional golf, playing on the PGA tour, and so, like he is a, he is somebody that comes to mind for sure. And then, uh, brian Odomom, who was my coach my junior and senior year. Um, he helped me a lot, um, really take my game to the next level. My last two years in college, um, I would say my first two years, I was playing really good but just couldn't, you know, I wanted to win golf tournaments and I just couldn't quite do it. And Bryant brought a great sort of perspective in and and he, he helped me kind of figure out how to win some golf tournaments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's exciting to see Bryant still supporting you, not just on the tour and going and showing up to things, but also here. He's here. He's got his team here. I saw Abby and Charlie earlier this morning. So, that's exciting to see that as well and talk a little bit more about your. You know your experience in your time at Western If I recall correctly, that was pre-golf van and you were driving yourself to practice and some of those trips were pretty tough right, and that work ethic speaks volumes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's funny. I mean I think the big lesson was just the discipline that it took to go. You know, if you really want to be good, which I knew, that I did, and I knew I had goals at Western, I knew I had goals beyond Western. But I, you know, like you said, you had to drive yourself to practice. You had to go practice when the weather wasn't great. You had to go do the things that you needed to do in order to get better, and it may not be what you really wanted to do, but it was playing golf in january here can be a little bit tough, it's tough, yeah, not what you want to do.
Speaker 3:I mean, I can remember a few practices and even times when I went out on my own and and even uh, behind norton where our short game area was and um be 40 degrees blowing, maybe raining, and I'd layer up and I was, and I was like I'm just going to go spend an hour and I'm going to get better if I do this, and so it was kind of learning that mentality that I'd sort of Really prepared you to play golf in Scotland, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I will say there's a lot of guys that get over to Scotland and I feel like it's a little bit of a shock, like the weather, and I'm like this is you know you're only playing in Florida.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a little more wind, that's it.
Speaker 1:So so, JT, you leave Western, you play professionally and then you earn your PGA tour card. Tell us about that. What did it feel like to know? Because you know you're you and your grandfather shared this dream, yeah. And then here it is and you've earned it. You've gotten there.
Speaker 3:I mean it's incredible, it's. I mean I dreamed about it since I was a kid. And um, yeah, I mean I just professional golf. I was fortunate it happened fast and I just was having so much fun playing professional golf. I didn't really care what tour I was playing on, I just was. I was loving it because it was a dream and um was fortunate enough to play well and get out on tour, and and um just playing the golf courses that I grew up watching on TV, seeing the guys and getting to know some of those guys that I'm used to watching on TV. And all of a sudden, I'm hitting range balls next to them and I'm used to looking up to them. And now, all of a sudden, I'm hitting range balls next to them and I'm used to looking up to them and now, all of a sudden, I've got to figure out how to beat them. It was great, it was everything I thought it would be.
Speaker 1:For the average listener out there who doesn't know how you get on the tour, tell us real quickly what is that process.
Speaker 3:That's a hard process to put into a few words, but basically you've got developmental tours. The Corn Fairy Tour is directly below the PGA Tour and that's the most popular avenue and that was the way that I went. So you play a full season on that tour and the top 30 finishers on that season's point list at the end of the year get their tour card, and so that was the year that I got my card. I played that year and finished 10th on the list, and we've been out on tour ever since.
Speaker 1:Been out on tour ever since. You mentioned what it's like to stand on a putting green or out on a driving range with some of the names that are just celebrated over the decades in professional golf. Was there a golfer that you always looked for on television or when you would walk a course at a tour event, looked up to, and then suddenly you find yourself, like you said, trying to figure out how to beat them. Who were some of those golfers and what were those interactions like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, the first one that comes to mind obviously is Tiger Woods.
Speaker 3:I grew up that age where we all grew up watching him dominate the sport and a lot of us can relate or not relate, but we can think back and say you know, I want to be that guy or I want to, I want to do that, and that was a big influence on kind of setting that goal as a kid and um, getting out on on tour and seeing them at tournaments, and I've been able to, I've gotten to play with them, uh, a couple of times and, like you know, that up close is pretty surreal as a as a kid that's used to watching him win majors on tv and um, the crowds are obviously wild, but um, he's obviously the first one that comes to mind.
Speaker 3:There's some guys in sea island, where I live now, that are that have kind of. They took me under their wing when I first got out on tour and um have become really good friends. Guys like harris english pat and gazire chris, um, guys that are not that much older than me but they had been out for a handful of years before I got out there. So, um, yeah, those are.
Speaker 1:those are guys that sort of come to mind and and you, um, I'll misappropriate this quote, Uh, but I've I've heard several times, um, whether it's Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, somebody. The game of golf is really played in the five inches between your ears. Yeah, when you're playing around with Tiger Woods, how do you keep that quiet?
Speaker 3:You know it's a good question. There's a lot. There's just a lot going on.
Speaker 1:I feel like for me, I feel like for me.
Speaker 3:I kind of embraced it and was just like this is, you know, your 10 year old self would be absolutely losing his mind right now. So, like, enjoy this. And as much as it was a tournament, I wanted to compete and when I got paired with him it was a playoff event, so it was a big week. But you know, I'm telling myself you're playing with the best player of all time.
Speaker 3:I've earned my spot here, and so it's like enjoy it. There's going to be noise, there's going to be distractions, the crowds are going to be crazy, but they're really not here to see you. They're here to see Tiger, so you can sit back and watch it too, and so like you can sit back and watch it too, and so it was fun.
Speaker 2:But, jt, in talking about that you know the Catamounts roared the day you got that card.
Speaker 3:As you know, it's everywhere.
Speaker 2:Everybody's excited, full of excitement and thrill for you and you've had a good following. I think the Catamounts love showing up for JT Poston. And what is that like? Because, there are a lot of people there to see the Tiger Woods, but there's a lot of people who are going all over to be, a part of your journey and continue following you. And how's that feel?
Speaker 3:It feels great. I mean I love having the support. It's great. You know, I see a lot of familiar faces on the road. My caddy and I we joke like the Catamounts travel better than probably any other school and we'll go. I mean, we obviously travel all over the country with the tour schedule and we'll see some purple walking the fairways in places that we would not have expected.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:You know, you get in the southeast or the Carolinas you're like we'll probably see some Catamount fans, some alumni out there. But when you're in Honolulu, hawaii or out in California you're not really expecting.
Speaker 1:You're not looking for it, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I mean it's like every single week and he likes to, he loves to joke, he's like. He's like, you know, he's a big Kentucky fan. He's like, you know, he's a big Kentucky fan.
Speaker 2:He's like I don't think Kentucky fans travel this well, and if you're not following his Twitter, for all things, JT. I highly advise that because it is pretty comical.
Speaker 3:It's high entertainment.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe what we ought to do is we put the PGA Tour events on the alumni events calendar and we'll show up to a couple of them.
Speaker 3:I'm there, I'll take all the help I can get, yeah absolutely yeah we'll absolutely be there.
Speaker 2:Talk a little bit about your win at Wyndham and you know it's somewhat of a home course for you. Yeah Right, big crowd there, big home showing. Share a little bit about that. I mean, I think there's a lot of people out there interested in in hearing how that went for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't think I could have scripted it any better. I mean, obviously that's the goal is to win on the PGA Tour. It's my first win.
Speaker 3:It's an hour and a half from where I grew up in Hickory, North Carolina. I had an incredible following mix of Hickory crowd, Western crowd. I even had three or four of my closest college teammates that drove up and they watched on Sunday and like, thinking back, it was probably. I think I was maybe three or four shots back going into Sunday. So for them to drive up thinking I was going to win is a big. I guess they had a lot more belief than maybe I did Like.
Speaker 3:I knew I had a good chance, but I knew how hard that that was going to be and it just was perfect. I mean to to cap it off the way that I did um to do it Tell us the story of that that round?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Starting off.
Speaker 3:So it was um, I was bogey free the whole, the whole week, um which I didn't know it at the time, but it was. I was the first person to do that in like 40 years, which is cool to have that little nugget of history.
Speaker 3:But it was just one of those days where I'd been playing great all week and Sunday I was, I think, three or four back and knew I needed a low one and I got off to a great start and essentially for the whole back nine, it was me and Ben Onn were the only two that we were kind of duking it out and I felt like I would make a birdie and then he'd make a birdie behind me because I was playing in front of him and I'd make another one and he'd make another one or he'd make two and it was just a fun. You know what you dream of as a kid like coming down the stretch back nine on Sunday. Like you're playing great and you're trying to win your first tour event and just to be able to step up to the plate and do it instead of you know the nerves getting the best of you and, um, yeah, it was. It was an awesome day. I will never forget it.
Speaker 1:Did you? I know a lot of times you hear golf commentators saying things like you know. You know that whoever's here, here's the gallery, roar over there. Yeah, and you know something happened. And in that particular setting, coming off the back nine Sunday of a tournament, if the guy behind you is sparking enthusiasm, then you know you've got to keep stepping up. Yeah, was that a factor for you? How much energy were you able to pull in? And then how do you manage that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I think I was kind of feeding off of the crowd that was following me. I mean we had a pretty big crowd following that back nine and it was a lot of familiar faces. I was trying to stay focused, obviously, but saw a lot of purple, saw a lot of hickory crowd and some friends and you know every birdie that I made. There was a pretty big roar and every big putt, every big shot, um, they were, they were all in and supporting it. So it was cool to, to, to experience that and and kind of channel it and use it and and um, yeah, I feel like it definitely helped get me the finish line and you turn in your scorecard on the 18th you're standing there.
Speaker 1:You got to wait a little bit. Yeah, what was that like?
Speaker 3:nerve-wracking. I'm one of those guys. I like being in, I like being in control like I want the ball, I want the ball in my court.
Speaker 3:I don't like having to rely on what I'm, what the other guy's doing, and, um, the good thing is is, like I said, we were bogey free the whole week so I could. Honestly, I knew I could tell myself if I get beat. I got beat because I played a perfect tournament essentially and, um, I was at peace with that and I think I was. We were just sitting there waiting and I think Ben had a long putt that if he made it we would have gone into a playoff and who knows. But thankfully it didn't work out, thankfully he didn't hit that right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh so you talked a little bit about. You know um, playing in the Southeast and then playing. You know California, hawaii, all these. You know other places. Do you have a favorite course?
Speaker 3:I do, yeah, um, you know, for playing all all the golf that we've played all over the world, all over the country I still come back to, to the Carolinas and the South. I mean I just it's maybe cause it's what I grew up playing, but Hilton Head, the Heritage, is one of my favorites that we play every year. Obviously, the majors are a step above. So, like the Masters is obviously the best one that I will ever play. Had you played, augusta before I had not no.
Speaker 1:So that was your first time on.
Speaker 3:First time, yeah, yeah, first. Masters is a surreal, surreal experience.
Speaker 1:I can't even begin to imagine Same.
Speaker 3:I feel that way about the one day that I'll actually go there as a spectator, right, I can't fathom how that must feel going in right and it doesn't get old. I mean I've played in three of them now going in right. And it doesn't get old. I mean I've played in three of them now and every time I step foot on property inside the ropes is just like. I mean, it's a dream come true.
Speaker 1:You're part of, as CBS likes to remind us, like the most storied tradition you know yeah 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Gordon Bradley, and I still talk about it all the time. I'm like every year I have to watch the opening, you know.
Speaker 3:I want, yeah, goran.
Speaker 2:Bradley, and I still talk about it all the time I'm like every year I have to watch the opening, you know, to hear the music. I want to see the Azaleas and I'll watch it over and over and he's like you really do that.
Speaker 3:I'll play it in my car when I'm driving down Magnolia Lane, like it's just yeah, it's just hard not to.
Speaker 1:It's part of it. You know that this is one of the most celebrated traditions in the sport, and also, too, I'm sure that that's a different clubhouse to walk around in. It's not just your fellow tour players, not that that's not already a star-filled. You know locker room, yeah, but you're looking around at some of these other guys now who are the. You know the legends, um. Have you had any fun interactions there? Do you mostly just look and move?
Speaker 3:Um, the cool thing about the masters is you obviously have your past champions that come back and play every year, guys that don't play on tour regularly, but they come and they play the masters. Um, and some of them are still competitive, like Fred couples still still plays great.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Hardlanger still plays great Wow. And just seeing those guys and, like you know, maybe playing a practice round with them or just talking to them, you know they have a lot of wisdom about the golf course. They've played it for obviously, some of them 20, 30 years and so they can there's a lot of tips that they can give the guys that are younger and maybe playing it for the first few times and yeah, I mean it's a cool, like it's very, it's very a lot of history, very private, but like, once you're in there, it's guys are pretty laid back.
Speaker 1:Sure, so they're more open to, more open to yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's great.
Speaker 1:So JT, obviously not every Sunday is in Augusta. Yeah, there are a lot of courses in between those majors and that's the work, right, that's the job. So walk us through, if you will. What is a typical week on the PGA Tour, even if it's at a tour event, that's at a golf course. That maybe we don't hear and we don't think of immediately, but what does sort of the Monday through Sunday look like for you as a tour player?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it honestly looks very similar week in and week out. I think that's a big part of having success at the highest level is the consistency. And so for me, monday is usually either a travel I either get in Sunday night or I get in Monday morning and Monday is usually pretty laid back. It's a day to kind of rest and reset. If you're coming from another tournament, if you're coming from home or from a week off, you might jump into the practice right away. But Monday is usually pretty laid back. You're getting settled into the week, register for the tournament, stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Tuesday is a practice round.
Speaker 3:Um usually play nine or eighteen holes in practice for a few hours and um, that's when you're kind of scoping out the course, preparing, uh for the tournament ahead and getting a feel for how the course is playing.
Speaker 3:Um, I'm fortunate enough I've been out on tour long enough I know these courses like the back of my hand and so I know what. I'm fortunate enough I've been out on tour long enough I know these courses like the back of my hand and so I know what I'm getting into before I even step foot out there. So it makes the practice rounds a little easier, a little less stressful, but um, wednesdays we do a pro-am and we'll get to play with either three or four ams that have um signed up to to play with us, which is always fun. You meet a bunch of people and sometimes some business partners come out of it, which is cool, and a lot of times just some connections and friendships, however you want to look at it. And then tournament starts Thursday and obviously Thursday, friday, first two rounds, there's a cut after Friday and then play the weekend if you make the cut.
Speaker 1:When you're prepping for Thursday. You have a serious practice on Tuesday. You have a fun round on Wednesday. In the back of your mind, are you thinking, oh, I know the pin's going to be here on on Saturday or Sunday and I'm just. I just want to lay up there Like are you? Are you plotting the course the whole time or are you just playing the round?
Speaker 3:A lot of times that's what we're doing on Tuesday and a little bit Wednesday too. But um, yeah, I mean, like I said, I've played. I've played a lot of them now, seven or eight times, and so I've seen all the. I've seen all the pins. And sometimes you'll show up and there'll be some little changes to the golf course or in things like that, new things to learn. But we usually have a pretty good idea of where the pins will be. For the most part we don't know which day.
Speaker 3:But you know to kind of putt and chip to those pins and sometimes hit an extra shot or two to those pins. And that's kind of where that prep is important to just, more visually than anything, just step up and hit that shot. So then when you're trying to hit it on Thursday or Friday, you're like, all right, just step up and hit that shot. So then when you're trying to hit it on Thursday or Friday, you're like, all right, well, I just hit it on Tuesday. So it's just a little bit of that nudge of confidence that you've already done it this week and you can go do it again when it matters.
Speaker 2:We're here for the JT Post and Invitational, which has now kind of been partnered to also support not just WCU men's golf but also the WIGC Terrible Golf Foundation, and so talk a little bit about that work and what this tournament means to you, and then we'll throw some questions and kind of get some of that. Yeah, I mean it's great.
Speaker 3:I mean I'm thankful that Tim and Western has wanted to do this tournament and have my name on it. I think it's really special. I'm proud of that. I love being back and seeing the guys on the team supporting them some other guys, some other old coaches, familiar faces. It's great. I really think Waynesville here is going to be a good fit for the tournament. I think for the years to come it's going to be a big for the tournament and, um, I think for the years to come it's it's going to be it's it's going to be a big. I think it could be a really big tournament and I love that they have the charitable component behind it too, because that's something that I talked to tim about early on um, with dreams of having my own foundation and doing something like that, and so they've already got a head start and and I think it's great, you know, we've done the auction, we've done the college and we've done a few things to kind of just try and raise some money to support Western North Carolina junior golf.
Speaker 3:And it's obviously close to home for me and something that I want to support and and want to try and make a difference. So it's been a great, you know segue into that.
Speaker 1:So WIGC charitable foundation, um and its mission to talk about or to to support youth golf? Um, you know, golf is a sport that not a lot of kids have access to. Um, if you don't have a a course membership somewhere, um, they're, they're not. Well, I say this it doesn't feel like there are a lot of public courses in Western North Carolina. I guess I don't know the count, but, um, a lot of them are members, uh, members courses. Um, what do you think you know success looks like for you? Is that, uh, a 10 or 12 year old kid playing golf for the first time and thinking maybe I could do this? Is that getting into schools and, and you know, pitch and putt competitions or something like that? What does? What do you think success looks like?
Speaker 3:I think it's it's more just about the kids I mean, when I think about I was very fortunate to grow up in a, in a at a club, but I think just what golf has taught me, the relationships that I've developed from the game, and. But I think just what golf has taught me, the relationships that I've developed from the game, and, and I think there's just so much to gain from from the game of golf, uh, as a kid, and that's, I think, the my goal is just to just to give them that exposure and that, uh, I guess, be able to develop some of those relationships. And I mean some of my best friends to this day are people that I've met as a kid playing golf. And, like you said, there's just not that much of an opportunity for that for kids in western North Carolina right now, and so I think we'd love to try and make a difference in doing that. I have a question for you now, and so I think we'd love to try and make a difference in doing that.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you. Did or does your grandfather get a chance to see you play?
Speaker 3:He did. Yeah, he unfortunately passed away a few years ago, but he was. He followed me most tournaments. He came to a lot of college events when they were close, Came to a lot of PGA Tour events. When I was my first few years on tour he was there at Wyndham when I won, so it was cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Was that one of the first faces you saw coming off the green?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was right there behind 18 green, it was. I mean, I've got a picture on my phone of him, my mom, my dad, my grandmother, and just giving them a big hug walking off 18. And I feel like they were celebrating like I had won and in my head I was like I don't know if I've won yet.
Speaker 1:But either way it was still. It was special, such a great moment. Do you carry that with you a lot when you're?
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean it's. I think about him all the time and he was a big influence on me as a person, me as a golfer. Yeah, I mean, when I'm out there doing what I'm doing, it's hard not to think about him sometimes.
Speaker 1:JT, I know you've spent some time with the team, the Western Carolina men's golf team, here at this JT Poston Invitational and I'm sure that there may have been an opportunity for you to just talk, talk, shop, talk about what it's going to be like out there.
Speaker 1:A question I always like to ask our alumni if you could go back to day one week one when you're on campus as a freshman and find yourself and your freshman self is wide-eyed and looking at it all and maybe, like you said, maybe a bit naive to how it's all going to work. If you could put your arm around yourself and give yourself some advice, some counsel about what's about to happen and where you're going to end up, what would you tell yourself?
Speaker 3:I would tell them just to enjoy it, enjoy the ride. I mean, and you know, some of my favorite memories from college are bus rides to tournaments with my teammates or going to and from practice. And just you just take for granted I think when you first get there, you just get used to it the routine of it, that you feel like it's going to be there all the time and um, those I mean just you have some, you have some of your closest friends there. You're all on the same team, you're working towards the same goal, um to try and be successful on the golf course and off um. But like it's, it's just something that I feel like was easy to sort of, just think was going to last forever and take for granted. And and now, looking back, I would 100% like I would all the time I wish I could go back and and do another semester of of golf. It's some of my favorite memories in my whole career.
Speaker 2:I love how you just you know easily slid in there, successful on the course and off, and I appreciate that I felt that to my core JT and I appreciate all of that.
Speaker 2:Talk a little bit about, you know, I mean kind of continuing on that, your ongoing relationship with Coach Ekberg and this team right, because you know, it seems like so long ago that you were here in a lot of ways and then in some ways it seems like it was just a couple of years ago, right. And so you have done such a phenomenal job of continuing to support. You know, tim, you didn't play for him.
Speaker 2:You didn't have to do that right, but you have and you stayed connected to him and to the program. So what's that like to you know? To come out and and be around the team that's here now.
Speaker 3:I just, you know, I I think back to when I was in school and I I try and just be a be a resource for them, whether it's questions about golf game or college golf or something else, like I just know I remember there were a few guys when I was in school that were that were that way and and, um, you know, you could bounce some questions off of them and and it was, it's it, it helps, and so I just try and be that for those guys it's nothing, it's not anything special, but just, you know, kind of be here and just let them know. Like, if you like reach out, feel free to reach out. You've got my phone number. Text me, call me, tim's got it. If you don't have it like I'm, I'm here to help these guys and I want them to succeed. I know, um, you know what they're facing week in and week out and if there's any way that I can help, then I'd love to do that.
Speaker 1:And it's easy to think the golf is an individual sport, you know, and, and, but there are a lot of relationships behind that that that make that happen. So, jt, are you saying that maybe I could text you if I'm looking for some pointers? I mean, I'm not.
Speaker 3:I'm not. I'm not as good at the swing advice stuff, but it's more like you said, it's 90% mental. I've I've been in their shoes, had the pressure shots, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Wait till you see my swing I'm not good at deconstructing a golf swing and and I might make you worse.
Speaker 2:You had to ask Gorham about when he took me golfing to give me lessons. Gorham Bradley, God bless him, and I swung and he stopped and he said I have no idea, I don't know what to say, I can't help you. Thanks, Jake.
Speaker 3:Appreciate that you stand on the other side of the ball. Try it that way.
Speaker 1:I don't know, JT, before we let you go. One of the things that we're working on at Western is to improve facilities for athletics. You had talked about the hours that you spend driving to practice. What does it mean at the collegiate level to have access to a practice facility, to have hitting bays, to have a practice experience that doesn't involve an hour or two hours of travel while you're also going to classes?
Speaker 2:Or going and finding a field when it's 40 degrees, like you mentioned earlier.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that's a big, that's a big part of it is having that facility and having that access to go practice when you want to practice. I mean with golf specifically and what I remember in school, like you have different schedules, guys have classes at different times, and so it's harder to get everybody together and go drive an hour and like finding that time and you know we're competitive, you want to play well, you want to get better, and a lot of guys are self-motivated and just to have a place that they can go on their own, I mean, like a lot of us would do that. You know you'd have our scheduled practice or qualifying and stuff like that, but we'd also, you know, if we had a couple hours or if we had some good weather on a Friday evening, we would go practice on our own. And just having a place where guys can do that is huge and it's going to be a big part of the players developing, I think, and the program developing and getting better. I think it's a place where they could definitely improve.
Speaker 3:Jt Poston, thank think. And the program developing and getting better, I think it's. I think it's a place where they could, they could definitely improve.
Speaker 1:JT Poston. Thank you again for the time. Thanks for being here at the JT Poston Invitational, for all you do for Western Carolina, for our golf program and for the university. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you guys. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1:Stacey I, I. I have to admit this was such such a fun interview because in part I play lousy golf and the idea of going out there and being competitive like JT is to play rounds with Tiger Woods. To do that kind of thing is just so beyond my comprehension about how you even do that. And now JT won in Las Vegas and he's punched his card in many ways. He's going to be in the Masters Tournament. He gets to do it all again.
Speaker 2:Right, how exciting. You know I can't fathom what it might be like to be in a locker room with Tiger, to play alongside someone like Tiger and you know, and JT obviously you know he talks about that and he shared, you know, kind of those emotions that go with it. But you know, I think in ways I would feel that way about playing with JT.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, yeah, yeah, please.
Speaker 2:That's a big deal.
Speaker 1:Holy moly it is, and also what a great thing that he mentors our players. He's there, they have his phone number and he stays in touch with the team. Jt's still a Catamount at heart.
Speaker 2:He is. He spends lots of time with the team. He's here for the JT Post and Invitational at Waynesville Inland Golf Club, like we talked about, and he spends hours with the team. He didn't just stop by on his way to somewhere. It's a thing and it's a common occurrence for him. He is a part of it, he wants to be a part of the program. He wants to give back to the program that helped him kind of build his foundation in this sport. So it's always nice to have him and his family up and staying in cashers with the in-laws and just feeling right back at home a little bit.
Speaker 1:Hey, speaking of home, it's coming right up on homecoming weekend Again. We talked to the top of the show. It's a little bit discombobulated. It's Friday, it's October, but this is the November Western Wednesday. We did want to push this out a little bit early to you because of JT's win in Las Vegas, but also because we want to make sure we get a chance to talk about homecoming more than a couple of days before. Stacey, what's happening around homecoming?
Speaker 2:Homecoming is going to be great. It's going to be busy. You've heard us talk about, you know, the westernmost counties in North Carolina turning green and some are now yellow and welcoming visitors. And for us, you know, we're just excited to welcome our alumni and friends home. For you know, for the weekend We've got a busy schedule. That schedule can be found on alumniwcuedu and you can see all the things going on. But we're going to kick it off right. You know, right off the batiday evening, um, come out and join us, support our current students in the homecoming parade, and your alumni award winners will be there too. But alumni will paint downtown silva purple. Um, you know we've got a big block party happening down there, alumni central, as we like to call it. So make a whole weekend of it. Don't just come up on saturday for the game. It'll be the whole weekend it it. Don't just come up on Saturday for the game.
Speaker 1:It'll be a lot of fun from start to finish. I know right now it's hard to say how much longer it's going to last, but the leaves are just incredible right now. They're beautiful.
Speaker 2:We got a little bit of a delay. Maybe the only positive of the storm is we had a little bit of a delay in the leaves changing, and so they are at.
Speaker 1:you know about at peak right now it is beautiful up here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely great weekend to spend in the mountains and you know we, it goes without saying it's a. It's a tough needle to thread folks. You've all, you've all obviously seen the devastation around Western North Carolina. I know it's tough to say the devastation around Western North Carolina. I know it's tough to say come see us, come, stay with us, particularly when there are so many people who are still rebuilding, when there are people without power, without water. But Jackson County is open, it is green. There are a lot of good folks here who really depend upon you for your support every fall when you come up here and stay with us and eat out and show that Catamount spirit around Cullowhee and Silva and all these other areas where you guys love to stay.
Speaker 2:And James for the parade. We have to mention that for the parade after party, we're going to have live music.
Speaker 1:It's going to be great.
Speaker 2:Four different locations, including our baseball alum, Matt Stilwell, who will be playing at the Lazy Hiker parking lot, but we will have many other alumni playing. We've got Terry Lynn, Queen Tim Queen, Tim Gillespie a whole group playing at Martha's Place. So it's just $5 to register for that and get to your very own WCU-branded Social District Cup.
Speaker 1:We send out an alumni and friends newsletter every month, the Culloway Connection. One of the things I said in the last one in October was I think we're going to need homecoming more than ever maybe. It's a good time to come home.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a great time to be together.
Speaker 1:I am going to keep my fingers crossed right now and say it out loud I am hopeful that also homecoming weekend we'll be playing some soccer in the Southern Conference tournament in Cullowhee. I hope.
Speaker 2:Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed, we'll know soon enough.
Speaker 1:Pay attention, y'all, because the soccer team is on a streak. They have a chance to repeat as SoCon champions, as regular season champions. It's really fun to watch. Speaking of watching, I wanted to say thank you to all of you guys who watch Western Wednesday. Make sure that you like, comment, subscribe, share all of those fun social media strategy terms that we like to say, that we need to say. And also thanks to Sam Wallace, thanks to Paul Gardner, tanner Norman, all the people behind the scenes who make Western Wednesdays happen and get it into your inbox or onto your screens or earbuds or however it is.
Speaker 2:Thanks to you guys for listening and following along.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks to JT Poston as well for spending time with us out in Waynesville, and we hope to see you for one more episode of Western Wednesdays before we call this a season soon. And, as always, go Cats.
