Out of the Rough: 3M Open (2025)

With the 2025 majors behind us, the PGA Tour looks to put the final charge into the impending FedEx Cup Playoffs, first with this week’s 3M Open.

This event was established in 2019 and has been held at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota in each of its installments.

Although the majority of the world’s best will use this week as a natural bye-week instead of taking the ten-hour flight from Northern Ireland, that doesn't mean there isn’t much to play for this week.

There are just two events remaining on the PGA TOUR schedule (3M Open and Wyndham Championship) before the kick-off of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The Field

With The Open Championship putting an end to the majors of 2025, most of the Tour’s best will remain idle this week with the up-coming FedEx Cup Playoffs just three weeks away.

However, there is still plenty to play for this week as just the top-70 of the season-long FedEx Cup Standings will make the field for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the playoffs.

As of the time of writing this, Patrick Rodgers (66th,) Erik van Rooyen (67th,) Byeong Hun An (68th,) Matti Schmid (69th) and Keith Mitchell (70th) are the first five inside the cut line for the top-70 of the FedEx Cup Standings. All five will be teeing it up this week.

Emiliano Grillo (71st,) Rickie Fowler (72nd,) Christiaan Bezuidenhout (73rd,) Davis Thompson (74th) and Kevin Roy (75th) are the first five out. All five are playing this week and are hoping for a big week to push themselves over the cut-line.

Maverick McNealy paces the field as the highest ranked golfer within the Official World Golf Rankings (17th) to be playing this week.

He’ll be joined by Sam Burns (22nd,) Sungjae Im (25th,) Wyndham Clark (28th,) Max Greyserman (33rd,) Taylor Pendrith (35th,) Akshay Bhatia (38th,) Thomas Detry (39th) and Adam Scott (40th) as notable golfers teeing it up this week.

Jhonattan Vegas comes in as the defending champion, topping Greyserman by a stroke to claim victory a season ago. He’ll return this week with hopes of making it back-to-back 3M Open titles.

Other former winners of this event teeing it up this week include Lee Hodges (2023,) Tony Finau (2022) and Cameron Champ (2021)

The Course

TPC Twin Cities can best be described as the quintessential TPC course layout.

It was designed by Arnold Palmer in 2000 and prior to the last six installments of the 3M Open, hosted the 3M Championship between 2001 and 2018.

Prior to its addition to the PGA TOUR schedule in 2019, the course had undergone a renovation behind Tom Lehman.

The purpose of the renovation was to adapt the course to more of a challenge for modern TOUR players.

Tees were pushed back in the renovation, adding nearly 300 yards in total length to the course. Additionally, water hazards were expanded to pose more of a persistent threat on tee shots and approaches.

In the end, the renovation proved to reward the best total drivers who can control their misses, avoid hazards and position themselves in a way to attack the large and receptive greens this course offers.

Now, the course offers both “birdies and trainwrecks” which helps offer some exciting golf.

It plays as a par-71 at 7,431 yards.

There are plenty of short par-fours, a reachable par-five and a stadium style par-tree to keep the crowds engaged. Essentially, what we see at most TPC courses on the TOUR schedule.

Off-the-tee, golfers are faced with tree-lined fairways. The rough is also grown out and as previously mentioned, there are ample water hazards.

The water hazards offer the biggest form of defense to this course, which was evident in the expansion of them in the somewhat recent renovation.

The greens are rather large in terms of TOUR standards and are bentgrass. 

The past four seasons have seen winning scores of -17, -24, -17 and -15 respectively, making TPC Twin Cities less than a strict birdie-fest. Hodge’s domination two seasons ago is an outlier.

In all, it’s a standard parkland course that does offer its fair share of defenses along the way.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is a 40-percent chance of precipitation on Thursday, a 25-percent chance on Friday and a 40-percent chance on both Saturday and Sunday. There is a chance of scattered thunderstorms on Saturday as well. Winds will remain in the single-digits across all four days as Thursday calls for seven miles-per-hour winds, Friday six miles-per-hour and both Saturday and Sunday eight miles-per-hour. Temperatures will begin at 86-degrees across both Thursday and Friday before jumping to 87-degrees on Saturday and 89-degrees on Sunday.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Ball Striking

• Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT) / Driving Accuracy

• Bogey Avoidance

• Birdie or Better Percentage

• Strokes Gained: Putting on Bentgrass (SG: PUTT Bentgrass)

• Scrambling

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Par Five Average Scoring

• Proximity to the Hole From 175-plus Yards

Betting Card

• Taylor Pendrith (+3000)

• Michael Thorbjornsen (+4000)

• Kevin Yu (+5500)

• Kevin Roy (+8000)

• Andrew Putnam (+13000)

• Thomas Rosenmueller (+30000)