As the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit comes to a close — one of two new tournaments added to the 2018-19 PGA Tour schedule — Blaine, Minnesota is preparing for its own inaugural event.
Over the July 4 weekend, TPC Twin Cities will host the 3M Open, an event that will be on the Tour schedule for the next seven years.
The new tournament features six players in the top-30 world rankings. World No. 1 Brooks Koepka headlines the 156-player field, along with Bryson DeChambeau (8), Tony Finau (16), Jason Day (18), Patrick Reed (25) and Phil Mickelson (28), while rookie standouts Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff and Justin Suh earn their third consecutive starts since turning professional.
TPC Twin Cities hosted the 3M Championship on the PGA Tour Champions since 2001 before receiving a PGA Tour event for 2019. The par-71, 7,468-yard course was originally designed by Arnold Palmer, and Minnesota native Tom Lehman was a consultant in the changes to the course that took place to prepare it for a PGA Tour field.
TPC Twin Cities often yielded low scores for Champions events, with the former 54-hole 3M Championship tournament ranking in the top two for birdies on Tour each of the last seven years. Lehman, though, who will compete with a sponsor exemption next weekend, helped lengthen and narrow the course, The Star Tribune reported.
Most of the holes have only experienced small changes, but the 18th saw its pond near the green double in size while its tee box was moved, too.
Most of the big names competing at the inaugural 3M Open skipped the Rocket Mortgage Classic this weekend, where Nate Lashley leads at 23 under heading into his final round Sunday. Suh and Wolff missed the cut at Detroit Golf Club. Hovland, meanwhile, put together an 8-under 64 to finish at -15.
The 3M Open will take place two weeks before the British Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, making it an ideal tune-up tournament before the final major of 2019.
Tiger Woods, though — who hasn’t entered an event since the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in mid-June — will miss the 3M Open as well as he travels with his family and rests up before the British Open.
