3M Open
The 3M Open this week and the Wyndham Championship next week are the final two opportunities for players to crack the Top 70 that qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. They are each regular events with moderate purses by PGA Tour standards at $8.4 million and $8.2 million, respectively. That certainly makes it hard to pick up a lot of spots in One and Done leagues if you are a ways back at this point in the season, but for those near the top fighting in the money, picking a winner or runner-up at the 3M Open or Wyndham Championship could make a major difference. Most of the top players are skipping this week to decompress after the final major of the year at Royal Portrush. Maverick McNealy is the highest ranked player in the OWGR teeing it up in the Twin Cities. He'll be joined by four other players in the top-30 including Sam Burns and Chris Gotterup. Haotong Li also gets a spot in this event after his strong T4 showing at The Open.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: TPC Twin Cities (7,431 yards, par 71)
- Location: Blaine, Minnesota
- Purse: $8.4 million ($1.512 million to winner)
- Defending Champion: Jhonattan Vegas (-17)
- 2024 Scoring Average: 70.4 (-0.6)
- 2024 36-Hole Cutline: -2
- Average Winning Score Last 5 Years: -18.4
This will be Year 7 of the 3M Open which began back in 2019 when Matthew Wolff eagled the final hole to win by one stroke over Byrson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa. It had been all American winners until last year when Jhonattan Vegas got back in the win column for the first time since 2017. Lee Hodges holds the scoring record at 24-under-par when he won by a whopping seven strokes back in 2023.
TPC Twin Cities offers a number of good birdie and eagle chances, but also features plenty of danger in the form of water hazards. We've seen several good rounds over the years get derailed by a big number. Any type of player is able to compete here if they are in control of their golf ball. Last year the leader for the week in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach, SG: Around-the-Green and SG: Putting all finished inside the top-5 of the tournament. Vegas was actually no one of them, but he was top-10 in a number of other key stats like driving distance, GIRs and putts per GIR.
The weather is expected to be pretty ideal for scoring with moderate winds and temperatures in the upper-80s. We also should see some thunderstorms throughout the week, which will keep the golf course receptive once the lightning is out of the area. Being able to maximize the amount of quality birdie looks each round and then paying them off on the greens are typically the two biggest keys in a shootout. Players who have gained a lot of strokes recently approaching the green and with the putter will likely be the way to go this week.
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3M Open: One and Done Picks
Pendrith is coming off a solo fifth place finish here last year in which he posted three rounds of 67 or better and led the field in SG: Off-the-Tee. On the season, he ranks fourth in the category amongst this field and seventh in SG: Tee-to-Green. It's hard to find much of a weakness in his game other than he's not the most accurate driver but still relatively straight for how far he hits it. He's historically played well this time of the year and against a weaker fields. This is essentially your last chance to use him, and he's too good to leave on the table if you have him available. --Ryan Pohle
If you're near the top of your OAD leaderboard, you can see which of your competitors have already burned 3M Open favorites like Sam Burns or Maverick McNealy, and simply take the best option that's primarily only available to you. But if you're playing from further back in the pack of a mid-to-large sized pool, a lower-owned dart is probably necessary at this point in the season, and Thorbjornsen harnesses the ceiling necessary to provide enough win equity for a worthy selection. He's rattled off three consecutive top-25s from the Rocket Classic to the ISCO Championship, highlighted by an 8.8 SG: Ballstriking performance at the John Deere. Over his last 24 measured rounds, Thorbjornsen is top-3 in each of SG: Off-the-Tee, Birdies or Better Gained and P5: 550-600 Efficiency. --Bryce Danielson
If you combine the last three years since Yu locked down a PGA Tour card, there haven't been very many better from a ball-striking perspective. The one thing that has always killed him, however, has been the putter. Yu has turned that around in a major way over the last few months. He has gained strokes on the greens in seven of his last eight starts. It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that during that stretch he also owns two top-5s and four top-25s. I'd expect another strong showing at TPC Twin Cities if he can continue this run of strong putting given his already fantastic ball-striking abilities. I also doubt many folks in OAD will look his way. --Ryan Andrade
Finau should be a popular play this week, but there's a chance that his ownership might be low given the fact that he hasn't played his best golf this season and his odds are in longshot range. Finau however plays very well on this course and seems to love it here as he's teed it up at the 3M every year since its inception in 2019. Finau won this event in 2022 and has never finished outside the top-30 here. His form isn't great, but that should change once he gets back on this course. --Greg Vara
Burns is not in the highest echelon of golfers, so there's a good chance he still might be available for you. He had a great run going before heading to the UK. The winner will need to make a lot of birdies this week - Burns leads the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting and is ranked fourth in total birdies. He's also in the top third in bogey avoidance. --Len Hochberg
3M Open: One and Done Fades
McNealy will likely be a popular pick considering he's the third favorite on top of finishing two back here last year, but it won't be easy for him to replicate having gained over nine shots with his short game (an area he hasn't been as tidy at this year) at TPC Twin Cities. I also wonder about his motivation as he sits 11th in the FedExCup Standings and played in Europe the last two weeks. I could see a missed cut with McNealy looking ahead to the playoffs. --Ryan Pohle
I'm a fan and he's obviously on a roll right now, but Gotterup is returning stateside from a career-altering couple of weeks across the pond, with newfound Team USA consideration adding to the weight of it all. And, he's projecting to possibly carry the most OAD ownership this week. Regardless of any narratives, this popularity makes him a tough click if you're facing a significant deficit in the standings with just five events remaining on the 2025 schedule. He could very well maintain the momentum this week, but Gotterup's worst putting surface has been bent, and he actually ranked outside of the top-40 in SG: Approach at both the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open Championship despite the awesome finishes. --Bryce Danielson
Clark had a bit of a resurgence of form on a couple links courses, but he has just one top-25 in his last 10 starts in North America. His iron play has been way to inconsistent this year at 157th in SG: Approach to trust on a course where you need to give yourself a lot of birdie chances. Clark finished T5 in his first appearance at TPC Twin Cities way back in 2019, but has gone MC-MC-T38 since. Let others in your league fall into the trap. --Ryan Andrade
I've seen some steam behind Clark this week and I'm not saying he'll crash and burn, or crash and smash (the locker room), but I'm not sure this is the best spot for him. He did finish T5 in his first start here in 2019, but since then he's struggled to find his rhythm at this event. Since 2019 he's missed two cuts and finished T38. He chose to skip this event the past two years, which would indicate to me that he's not all that comfortable on this course. --Greg Vara
Kitayama is not a top guy. But he has been showing up in a lot of betting and DFS circles this week. No idea why. He's made barely half his cuts. He's outside the top 100 in the point standings. Yes, he's one of the longest hitters on Tour, which is a good fit for this week. But he's also wildly inaccurate and one of the worst putters. Hard pass in any format. --Len Hochberg
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
