3M Open: Power ranking the top 10 at TPC Twin Cities

The PGA Tour is in Minnesota for the 3M Open, formerly an event on the PGA Tour Champions

Get your sticky notes ready. The 3M Open has arrived.

This event was on the PGA Tour Champions schedule from 1993-2018, then known as the 3M Championship. It consistently drew big names from the legends’ circuit, but the North Star State hasn’t seen a field like this since the Ryder Cup came to Hazeltine in 2016.

Some big names like Brooks, Phil and Hideki have signed on to take on TPC Twin Cities.

This Tom Lehman/Arnold Palmer course is a cookie cutter TPC course that the 50-plus crowd annually tore up in past years. It ranked as 18th toughest out of 26 venues in 2018.

The course, located in the Twin Cities north suburb of Blaine, has since been lengthened from around 7,200 yards to 7,500 yards and the fairways are narrower thanks to a Lehman redesign. There are double-digit water hazards as well as added bunkers. The greens remain largely unchanged. The pond on 18 was made larger. Par is 72.

The course is bentgrass, which is popular here in this Midwest swing.

Even with the changes made, I expect some low scores akin to last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic or next week’s John Deere Classic.

In a vacuum, I think a lot of players could play well at this tournament. Looking at the weather makes me lean toward a bomber winning.

I can attest as a Minnesotan that it’s been a fairly wet summer to date and more rain is on the way throughout the week.

Let’s see how many big hitters I side with this week at the 3M Open.