Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview- 3M Open
OVERVIEW
The summer swing season events are going as expected after last week’s annihilation of Detroit Golf Club finished exactly how I anticipated and should continue again this week in Minnesota. TPC Twin Cities has hosted the 3M Championship for the Senior Tour for a number of years. If you’re not aware, the old timers only play their tournaments for three days (with no cut) and have seen scores in the range of -15 to -25. There’s been talk of Tom Lehman & Tim Herron working with the PGA Tour to make course more difficult for the PGA Tour players, but I don’t think recruiting these two will turn this into The Valspar or Honda when it comes to scores. A couple of the holes will be lengthened, the rough will be up a bit, but nothing too challenging as the Tour will want more big names to commit to this event as the years go by. The fairways are wide, the terrain is flat, and the greens are huge and undulating (this will be the toughest part of the course). This course is the absolute definition of easy, especially for PGA Tour professionals. I’ve been saying this since the Tour announced the event would be hosted here and I still stand by it – If these guys don’t finish within a shot or two of -30, I’ll be shocked. Lashley didn’t need to go low yesterday and ended up shooting -25 to win the event. Had his nearest competitor started the day within a couple of shots of him, I think he wouldn’t have played a bit more aggressively and that number would’ve gotten to -28 at the very least. This field is highlighted by Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day and Bryson Dechambeau. As someone who’s been to Detroit and lives in Minneapolis I can say (without bias) that Minneapolis is a much nicer place, with much more to do at night than Detroit (with less risk of being shot or mugged). That being said, I do think you need to consider the drive of some of these players this week and next as we head to the season’s final major in a few weeks. For one & done purposes, I think it’d be silly to burn Brooks this week after seeing DJ miss the cut in Detroit and the year’s final major on the horizon (he’s finished 2nd-Win-2nd in majors this year so you’d prefer to use him in a large purse event), but outside of that I think everyone else is in play.
TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND
o The Course
• TPC Twin Cities
• Par 71
• 7,400 yards
• Bentgrass greens
o Location: Blaine, MN (aka Twin Cities)
o Corollary Courses/Performances: TPC Courses – TPC Deere Run
o Past Champions: None – First time event
KEY STATS TO TARGET
o Strong Emphasis – SG: OTT + SG: APP, Par 5 Scoring, P4 Scoring 400-450, Birdies or Better
o Important – SG: P (Bentgrass), Scrambling
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