3M Open could feature some low scores due to soft greens | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Amy Rodgers reports from TPC Twin Cities to preview the 3M Open, where an influx of rain could help golfers shoot impressive scores to help their FedExCup standings. #Golf #PGATour
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3M Open could feature some low scores due to soft greens | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new elite family of woods and irons from Callaway. Hey, hey, welcome into Golf Central. I’m George Samaricus here with you for the next hour. We’re going to be diving into those possible RDER Cup rosters for each side later in the show. Plus, a big honor for a past US RDER Cup captain. That’s later. But we begin tonight with the end of the PGA Tour regular season fast approaching as now the tours back stateates side TPC Twin Cities. This week marks the 3M Open in Minnesota and this will be the seventh playing of this event. It’s a critical week for players in the top 70 bubble with an eye towards the playoffs. Also top 100 bubble which will be used to determine who keeps their cards going into 2026. Two weeks to go before the playoffs. So there are a few past major champions in the field this week. Players like Adam Scott who’s trying to chase those FedEx Cup points. He’s outside the top 80. Also others who hope to be making a statement for the RDER Cup team to captain Keegan Bradley like Sam Burns. Chris Gddup right now back in action after that win in third place finish at the Genesis Scottish Open the Open. Ricky Fowler also playing after tied for 14th at Royal Port Rush. With more in Minnesota, let’s head out to TPC Twin Cities where we find Amy Rogers who had a chance to talk with one of the great stories from last week’s Open Championship. Amy, hey there, George. Yeah, I got a chance to catch up with Hal Tong Lee who made the quick trip here from the Open Championship to here in Minnesota for this week’s 3M Open. He only got into the field on Sunday on the heels of that top five finish at the final major championship of the season. And Lee told me that he is looking to make the most of his opportunity to compete here this week. He is currently third in the race to Dubai standings on the DP World Tour. He’s just behind Rory Maroy and Tier Hatton, which means he is number one on the list in terms of not having PGA Tour status. Now, at the end of the season, the top 10 in that race will receive PGA Tour status. And Lee told me earlier today that is a major motivator for him at this stage in the season. Yeah, definitely. Last week been really helpful. Um, apparently my on my confidence wise and uh just very happy to get in this week, have another opportunity to compete on the PJ tour. So, I’m just very grateful. What are your goals for the remainder of this season? Um, I think I’m very close to get my PJ tour card for next year. So, um, I just want to keep the moment and keep going and hopefully u have a better position for the next year. what has come together for you and your game here in recent weeks? Um, I think my iron’s been quite sharp um over all year being quite steady. So, um, I think that’s one of my strengths. What did you take away from the overall experience last week? Uh I think we’ll be especially from last week to this week will be more cho and uh and also realize I actually can compete with u world number one um in those kind of moments. Um just give me a lot of self-belief. I spoke with Lee on the driving range today as he was preparing for his first start here at the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities. And although he may not be for familiar with the course, even those who have played here before will have to do some adjusting here this week as mother nature will in fact uh impact a little bit of how the course will play here. Uh just last month, this area receiving seven inches of rain. They received several more inches in the early part of July and even here yesterday had more rainfall uh that forced the suspension of play as players were trying to get uh some practice going. Um I spoke earlier today with Joe Ronstead. He’s the director of golf course maintenance here at TPC Twin Cities. And he said it’s really been a challenge for him and his team just getting this course ready for this tournament. He said those first uh those four weekends in June, each weekend they’d have to call an audible and try and find something else they could work on until the rain and thunderstorms would move out and then they could work on getting the course ready. But once all was said and done, he said that they are happy with how the course is going to play this week. But he said that it’s going to be a little bit softer than they would like it to be. That rough, a little bit thicker than we usually see here. It was 3 and 1/2 in in height last week. And they’ve let it grow up to this point. He said that they would make the decision sometime later today whether they would go ahead and mow it one last time before the week starts or just let it grow up. I had a chance to speak with Camilo Vagas after he played nine holes here earlier today and he remarked at how difficult the rough was and discuss some of the challenges of trying to navigate TPC Twin Cities. I think it’s got a lot of angles off the TE’s and into the greens. Uh you got a little angles off the TE’s and you got to be smart. Greens are rolling pretty good. They are soft. And I see we’re going to get a little different wind Thursday, Friday, Thursday compared to the other days. But the golf course is in great shape and and I like the challenge here. You mentioned the greens are soft. I saw that they received almost 10 inches of rain here just last month. Have you seen that affect any other parts of the golf course? Yeah, off the tea. The the fairies are not rolling either. So it’s playing long. I just played this ninth hole. I just hit a driver fivewood into the wind. So I fade all the way to driver 9 iron here when the wind is the other way and the fairways are firm. So yeah, it’s the rough is up. It’s healthy, but overall it’s in good conditions. Yeah, I think there’s some tough T- shots. Um you know, some T- shots with hazards in play, so you’ve got to drive it well first of all, but um you know, from there, you know, you can make a lot of birdies. Uh the greens are rolling perfect right now, so you can make a lot of putts. So, I would say really get it get the ball and play off the tea, avoid some of those penalty shots, and then uh all things go from there. With the rough already being as hardy as it is, how much of that do you think will be penalizing and and be a factor here this week? Yeah, for sure. I’m excited. I think it’ll make it play a little bit more difficult here, which I think is good. Um, you know, and really separate a good shot from a mediocre shot. So, um, I like that part of it and I think it’ll be a good good test this week. Yeah, it’s a little soft, but it’s um I I don’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary here. Um, it’s always usually a little on the softer side with the humidity and the heat and everything. And uh, and it’s it’s it’s pure bent grass, which is something I love. And uh, you obviously can’t get it too hot, so they have to keep some moisture on it, which is fine, just to keep it cool. But no, the course is in great shape. I’m I’m excited for the week. So, what do you anticipate will be the biggest challenge out there this week? Um, controlling spin could be an issue into the greens. Uh, I think we have some more rain coming uh, overnight, a couple nights. Uh, so yeah, just controlling spin every now and then. Um, but I I don’t think there’s supposed to be a whole lot of wind all week. So, um, I guess the issue could be making just a lot of birdies or lack thereof. So, um, yeah, I would just I I’m imagining low scores this week and um, like regardless of wind uh, direction, but I I don’t think there’s supposed to be a whole lot of it, so scores will probably be pretty low. Rosstead told me he expects that scoring will be lower here for the tournament this year just with all the rain they’ve received. The greens are so soft which will really allow players to attack these pins and go low here this week. And also the light breeze that they’re used to receiving in this area is one of the biggest protectors of this golf course. George, it’s currently not in the forecast here. So we could expect some really low scoring here this weekend. All right, certainly something to watch for Amy. And now we’re going to take a quick look at the odds at the 3M Open. Chris got her up. Sam Burns currently co-favorites at 18 to1. Windham Clark coming off a strong finish at the open 25 to1 past champion of this event. Tony Feno 35 to1 for him. And our defending champion Johnny Vegas is 75 to1. It’s courtesy of DraftKings. So that’s what Vegas thinks about Vegas in the 3M Open. We welcome in Paige McKenzie who always does a good job crunching the numbers. Paige, this is your seven of the 3M Open. What have you been able to tell about the profile of past winners to this point? Well, the reality is the oddsmakers are going to have a difficult time because some of the past champions haven’t come off that short list uh that we just saw. In fact, when you look at the recent champions here, most of them have been ranked outside the top 100 in the world. Five of the last six winners. In fact, Tony Fenow was the only one uh that was a top ranked player that went on to win. A lot of that has to do with the strength of field. Uh this typically doesn’t bring the the top players, but this year maybe an exception. 11 of the top 50 players in the world will be teeing it up this week. In addition to that, five of the six winners were also top 10 in stroke scene approach during that week. So it certainly rewards approach play. You got a sense of that from how Tom Hoy described it, which was just get it in play and then you’ll have a shot into the green.