3M Open: Expert Picks

Tournament Information

3M Open – A new tournament but continuation off the 3M Championship which was part of the PGA Tour Champions
Date: July 4^th – 7^th
Course: TPC Twin Cities
Purse - $6.4MM ($1.2MM to winner)
FedEx points – 500 to winner(s)
2018 Winner: N/A

Course

TPC Twin Cities opened in 2000 as an Arnold Palmer design (in conjunction with Tom Lehman). It is a long course registering at 7,468 yards, a par 71 with a course rating of 75.4 and a slope rating of 143. This former farmland is layered with water (27 bodies) and plenty of mature trees. The fairways and greens feature bentgrass and elsewhere there is a native prairie grass. The target hole will be the 7^th hole which has large beach bunkers and greens that are raised. This course should produce a hefty amount of birdies.

Photo by Chris Condon/PGA

My Starting 4

Joaquin Niemann (1st selection this year). He looked so good the last two weeks (5^th in both tournaments) I have to put him on here. He is 39^thin strokes gained approaching the green and 31^st in strokes gained tee to green.

Charles Howell III (3rd selection this year). He’s among the top 50 in driving distance, he’s 14^th in Fedex Ranking, he’s 5^th in Greens in Regulation percentage and he’s top 50 in strokes gained: off the tee, around the green, tee to green and total.

Cameron Champ (2nd selection this year). I am going to double down on Cameron who finished 49^th last week in Detroit and now travels north to Minnesota. He is among the strongest drivers in the game and is playing well right now. Behind Tiger Woods, Cameron Champ has the best average score on Par 3’s scoring a birdie 18.34% of the time. Cameron is among the best rookies this year and this tournament should provide a good opportunity for him to excel.

Tony Finau (3rd selection this year) — Tony comes into the 3M classic with three missed cuts despite being in the top 20 in OWGR and Fedex Ranking. This has happened once before in 2016 when he missed four consecutive cuts. I’m banking on a rebound from Tony this weekend.

My Bench 2

Adam Schenk (1st selection this year). He’s among the 50 furthest drives in the game and he is among the top 100 in FedEx Rankings. He’s 55^thin strokes gained approaching the green, 38^th in strokes gained putting and I think the combination of his long drives, approach and putting could yield him a top 30 finish here.

Photo by Adam Lacy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Luke List (3rd selection this year) – One of the top 5 drivers on the tour in terms of distance, Luke comes into this tournament with three consecutive missed cuts. I personally see this as a strength, new tournament no expectations and a chance for him to rebound. For the record, he has not missed 3 consecutive missed cuts since 2016 when he rebounded off one of those with a 6^th place, 50^th place and 20^th result in the next tournaments

2019 Stats

Starting 4: Avg finish 47th (36th percentile)
Bench 2: Avg finish 60th (46th percentile)