After a two-week stop in the UK, the PGA TOUR is back stateside for a pair of tournaments that gives players a chance to earn FedExCup points before the playoffs start in early August. The first of those two tournaments is the 3M Open, which takes place at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, from July 24-27. Let’s take a look at the history of this event and the course that will host this week’s very important event for players looking to establish themselves on the PGA TOUR for the rest of this season and next year as well.
The History of the 3M Open
After last week’s stop at The Open Championship, the oldest golf tournament in the world, the PGA TOUR moves to one of the newest regular stops on the PGA TOUR. The 3M Open debuted in 2019, when Matthew Wolff defeated Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa in the inaugural event.
After taking the Fourth of July weekend the first year, the tournament moved to the end of July for the past few years. For all its history, the tournament has taken place on the same course at TPC Twin Cities, which hosted a PGA Tour Champions event from 2001-2018.
Last year, Jhonattan Vegas won by one stroke over Max Greyserman by making a birdie on the closing hole to get to -17 for the tournament. Greyserman caught fire with six birdies on the back nine to shoot a -8 for the day but came up just one stroke short of forcing a playoff. Just behind Greyserman, Matt Kuchar and Maverick McNealy finished tied for third while Taylor Pendrith rounded out the top five.
Much of the focus for the next two weeks will be on earning FedExCup points to get into the playoffs. The top 70 in FedExCup points qualify for the postseason, which starts in two weeks at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and culminates with the TOUR Championship at the end of August.
The 3M Open will award a total purse of $8.4 million with $1.51 million going to the winner. For more info about the field, check out this post from my colleague Ciaran Doyle.
A Closer Look at the Course
TPC Twin Cities will host the event for the seventh straight year. After two weeks playing links-style courses, this week’s course marks a return to the more familiar stateside-style of parkland golf. It has the feel of many of the Florida courses since water hazards play such a large role, and it definitely has plenty of the signature marks of its famous designer Arnold Palmer.
The course is built on risk-reward holes and gives up a high birdie rate but also one of the highest “double-bogey or worse” rates since the water and thick rough heavily penalize wayward shots. While the winning scores are usually relatively low, the tournament is usually a birdiefest, and the scoring average per round since 2019 is only -0.61.
Driving is extremely important on this layout since water is in play on nine different tee shots. Both length and accuracy are very important off the tee, so Total Driving and Good Drive % are important metrics to consider.
The course features bentgrass fairways and greens, along with all the water hazards.
Here’s a quick overview of the course from a few years ago:
In general, Strokes Gained: Approach continues to be a key metric to lean into, along with Bogey/Double-Bogey Avoidance and Strokes Gained: Ball Striking on courses that have lots of water issues. Good Drive% and Total Driving also matter more on this course than they do on some other courses, since wayward drives usually result in mulitple strokes dropped.
