BILTMORE CHAMPIONSHIP

September 16, 2026

JT Poston

The Cliffs at Walnut Cove

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Like to welcome JT Poston into the interview room here at the Biltmore Championship Asheville. You know this area well; all the connections you have. Just comment about how happy you are to be in Asheville this week.

JT POSTON: Yeah, I mean, it's been one that's been circled on the calendar I would say since they announced the tournament.

I grew up an hour from here in Hickory and went to school an hour from here at WCU, so very familiar with the mountains. Certainly biased, but I think the North Carolina mountains are some of the greatest places in the world. I love spending time here. Love seeing the people. Love getting back in the community. Look forward to it.

Q. Talk to us a little bit about The Cliffs at Walnut Cove.

JT POSTON: Yeah, so this is actually my first time seeing the The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, but it's a great track. Very nice area. Golf course is great. I think, you know, they've done a good job. It'll be a decent test this week. Certainly looking forward to the week.

Q. Before questions, if you can just comment on your year. Winning at Memorial is a career highlight, and 15 of 21 cuts. No. 32 in the FedExCup standings. So quality year. If we can get some comments.

JT POSTON: Yeah, overall I would say a solid year. A little bit of a slow start to the year, but obviously turned around at the Memorial having a great week there and winning Jack's event. You know, when my career is all said and done that's definitely going to be a big highlight.

Following that up with a T4 to the U.S. Open was my best finish in a major so far.

So certainly the highs were great and a lot of good positives to take away. I wish I could have made it to Atlanta to really cap off a good year, but overall 32nd in the FedExCup is a solid year.

Making cuts is a good sign of consistency, so I'm pleased with it. Also feel like there is definitely some room for improvement.

Q. How much do you plan to play in fall? Obviously this one is close to home, but busy schedule? In between?

JT POSTON: I'm obviously playing this one. I'll play RSM. I live down there in St. Simons, so that's an easy one, too. The plan is to take some time off, to be honest. I think we have some trips planned with the family that otherwise we hadn't been able to do in years past.

Kind of the benefit of making that top 50 and having a good year is to be able to do some stuff like that.

I'll still practice and play a lot at home, but tournament-wise, right now this one and RSM are the only ones on the schedule.

Q. What do you think makes golf in the mountains so special and how did that shape your game?

JT POSTON: I just love the -- the beauty of playing golf in the mountains is great. I think especially this time of year we're pretty close to the leaves turning, and I don't know, something about it. I just enjoy it.

Maybe it's just familiarity. I grew up around it and gree up playing a lot of it as a kid and went to school obviously here in the mountains. Just very comfortable with it.

But you've got some different shots that we don't see a lot of times on Tour with the elevation change. You know, the 11th hole-out here in the yardage book plays 23 three yards downhill. We don't see that hardly at all on Tour I would say.

So I feel like it's some different golf shots. I don't know. Something about it. I love it.

Q. What do you think about this Nicklaus course in the mountains?

JT POSTON: It's great. I mean, after Memorial I'm a big fan of Nicklaus designs, so I think it's a great track. I think it'll be pretty gettable I think this week if it I were to guess.

But you still have to hit really good golf shots and make some putts. I think it's still a great test.

Q. Do you feel the mountain support? You went to college here in the mountains and now you're playing again here. What does it feel like to be back from a supportive standpoint?

JT POSTON: Yeah, definitely. It almost kind of feels like a host of sorts, which is a little bit of a weird feeling. It's one of those I've got a lot of family and friends that would travel to Charlotte and Greensboro when I played in North Carolina in the past.

You know, this -- we're getting a lot more WCU shouts out there, which is a lot of fun. I think it'll be great. I love playing in front of the home crowd. I love playing in front of familiar faces.

I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun out there this weekend, and looking forward to it.

Q. Been a lot of talk about what's coming down the line Tour-Wise. Got some more details yesterday. What are your impressions of it? Going to be pretty different. Leaning into the meritocracy.

JT POSTON: Yeah, I think leaning into the -- I like leaning into the meritocracy thing. I think that's kind of what this Tour was founded on. But, yeah, it's a lot of changes. I read up on it yesterday.

I would say the biggest thing that I noticed was the difference in how the points are distributed based on finish. Seems like it's putting a lot more emphasis on making cuts and having a consistent year versus maybe being a guy that shows up a few times a year but has a high finish.

So I don't know. I'm interested to see how it plays out. It's definitely a lot of changes. I think for the most part if you're in professional golf they're good changes regardless of the level you're playing on. We'll just have to see how it goes here in about a year.

Q. JT, going back to your connection to this place, if you go back to your days in Western Carolina, could you have imagined that you would be playing a PGA TOUR event in Asheville? As a follow up, what does it mean to you personally that we are right around the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene and this tournament has come here?

JT POSTON: Yeah, to answer your first question, it would've been a stretch for me to believe I was playing in a PGA Tour event period, so much less one in Asheville. I feel like as a kid my dream was always to play on the Tour, and I've been fortunate to live out this dream for ten years now.

To be able to have a tournament basically in our backyard is really cool. Like I was saying earlier, seeing all the familiar faces and playing in front of home crowd is a lot of fun and I enjoy that. Just really looking forward to seeing some of those people this week and hopefully can put together a good week for them.

And then obviously Hurricane Helene, that was some pretty devastating stuff. You know, being and growing up in the mountains of North Carolina you don't really think of having to worry about hurricanes. So I remember seeing it on TV and following it pretty closely and having family close.

I think my biggest takeaway was I feel like the mountain community kind of showed a little bit, everybody coming together to help the people that needed it. You know, I think the timing of this event is -- I don't think that's a coincidence. I think the Tour probably saw that.

I love that they are stepping in and bringing an event to Asheville. It's only going to do good things for this area and the efforts to help recover from that devastation.

THE MODERATOR: All right, JT, thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

JT POSTON: All right. Thank you, guys.