Cullowhee, N.C. – Rarely does an individual come along that does more to alter the course of a program than has former Catamount men's golfer, J.T. Poston. And perhaps even rarer are when the stars align as perfectly as they did back in August both for Poston and Western Carolina's golf program.
As the Catamount program prepared to unveil its 2019-2020 schedule, head coach Tim Eckberg already had plans to alter the name associated with the team's home tournament – the Hummingbird Intercollegiate – held at the beautiful Country Club of Sapphire Valley just 30 miles from the Cullowhee campus to honor one of the program's most decorated former student-athletes.
And then, it happened.
With a partisan crowd looking on in the 51st start of his professional career, Poston gave Western Carolina its first PGA Tour victory, doing it in typical J.T. Poston fashion – humbly but assertively, matching records along the way. The Hickory, N.C., native became the first player since the great Lee Trevino in 1974 to win a 72-hole stroke-play event on tour without carding a bogey-or-worse, winning the Wyndham Championship.
“It's pretty amazing how things come together sometimes,” said Eckberg of the plan to rename WCU's home tournament. “This name change of our host event to honor J.T. had been nearly a year in progress. I knew I wanted to do something for him, for what he did as a Catamount, what he's doing on the PGA Tour – but also just the person he is and how generous he has been with WCU Golf. I wanted to reconnect him with us, tie us together and continue to put eyeballs on the fact that he did indeed come to WCU, was an All-American here, and is now on the PGA Tour.”
For 13-consecutive seasons – and 14 years overall – Western Carolina men's golf has partnered with the generous membership and management of the Country Club of Sapphire Valley to host an intercollegiate men's golf tournament. Beginning humbly with eight teams, the WCU Intercollegiate started in the 2004-05 season. Then, it wasn't held again until the 2007-08 campaign, starting its current run that continues this weekend in Cashiers.
As fall colors just begin to splash up the mountainsides, teams cascade upon the sleepy mountain villages in southern Jackson County beginning Saturday with the practice round slated for Sunday afternoon. Playing at 54 holes for just the fourth time in event history, Monday's opening round will have a shotgun start with 36 continuous holes of competition followed by Tuesday morning tee times off both the front and back nine for the final 18 holes.
Combined, golfers from 16 intercollegiate teams including two with ties to Poston – his alma mater and tournament-host, Western Carolina, and one coached by one of his former mentors, the Bryant Odom-led Kennesaw State Owls – will decide both the team and individual medalist for the first-ever J.T. Poston Invitational. (Complete tournament preview coming later this week on CatamountSports.com)
“It's quite humbling but at the same time exciting,” said Poston on the idea of having the Western Carolina home event to carry his name. “The Country Club of Sapphire Valley and its membership were great to both our program at WCU and to me as a player while I was in college. It ranked among my favorite courses and our home tournament was one of my most enjoyable events to play in.”
Poston, who plans to be at the country club on Sunday during the practice rounds, won individual medalist honors in the 2013 event – the first time the Hummingbird Intercollegiate played out at 54 holes, doing so with a then school-record 54-hole score of 204. Adding top 10 finishes of ninth in 2011 and third, in 2014, Poston's average finish over his four-year career at the tournament was eighth.
Taking the idea of honoring a past champion and seeing it come to fruition this weekend is much like an 18-hole round of golf – plenty of “gimmes” with a few items on which you must work out the ups-and-downs with some difficult shots to make. But when it rings true, there are few things in sport that are more elegant than a perfectly placed golf shot.
Talk of the renaming of the Hummingbird Intercollegiate – a moniker that hung on the tournament since 2008 – began back in March of 2019. The Catamount head coach, Eckberg – a WCU men's golf alumni in his own right – started the process of obtaining permission to make the tournament name change from the athletic department and the country club, while also starting the process of rebranding the 14-year old event. In May, he approached the future namesake of the event with his proposed ideas.
“I wanted to make sure it wasn't too much for him – but I could tell he was excited about the thought (of renaming the tournament) when we chatted, so I was able to run with it from there,” explained Eckberg. “It was pretty easy, to be honest. Everyone that knows J.T. loves him. The membership at CCSV tell stories of watching him at the Hummingbird or playing in a Wednesday night scramble with him. Everyone in Catamount Athletics feels the same way and are always wanting to go out of their way to do anything for him. So, getting approvals was ultimately pretty easy.”
From 2011 through 2015, Poston's name was synonymous with Western Carolina men's golf. He collected six tournament wins during his collegiate career, twice winning the Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship (2014 & 2015) and in addition to the 2013 win at WCU's home tournament. He played in three NCAA Regional fields as an individual, becoming the only Catamount to advance to the NCAA Championship tournament in 2015.
Poston holds WCU's top individual career stroke average at 71.73 while also boasting three of the program's top seven single-season scoring averages including both first (70.27 in 2013-14) and second-place (71.13 in 2014-15).
Not only a fixture atop collegiate leaderboards, Poston was also a favorite among the membership at the many courses WCU golf is fortunate to call home for practice – including the home host venue, the Country Club of Sapphire Valley (CCSV).
“Fast forward to August and we are about to announce the schedule and name change – and he wins on the PGA Tour. It makes me look like a genius in putting all this together, but really, he's just that good,” Eckberg said. “And, this wasn't just for WCU or our men's golf team. But it was for the CCSV, their generous membership, and for J.T. himself.”
Eckberg concluded, “We are extremely proud of him in everything that he does, and win or not, I wanted to make sure that we honored everything he has and will continue to accomplish. But now, to have our tournament named after a PGA Tour winner, it's beyond special.”
