2022 3M Open – TPC Twin Cities Course Preview

Coming off a scintillating week at the 150th Open Championship, the PGA Tour heads back stateside for the inevitable post-major letdown and the 3M Open held at TPC Twin Cities. Designed by the legendary golfer and architect Arnold Palmer, the course was laid out on a 235-acre tract of property on the site of a former sod farm in the Minneapolis suburb of Blaine, Minnesota.

After two straight events on links-style courses, the 3M Open also signals a return to the familiar confines of parkland-style golf. At TPC Twin Cities, while low-scoring is the name of the game, there are still plenty of water hazards and thick rough to present a challenge to those who are not in good form. This course also contains numerous “risk-reward” holes which provides a level of excitement along with no lead being safe coming down the final stretch of holes.

The Field

As we head down the final stretch of the season and the typical weaker fields the come along with it, there is still a massive amount of FedEx Cup points on the line. Motivation becomes a real intangible this time of year as many players will be trying to either qualify or better their position with just three events remaining before the FedExCup Playoffs begin. Only the top-125 players in the standings qualify for the first event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

The week after a majors tend to struggle to attract big names. For this week’s 3M Open, only five of the top-50 players in the world are in attendance. There is a small upper tier of players headlined by Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau and Sungjae Im. A small group will be making their way over from across the pond, including Cameron Tringale, Tom Hoge, Sahith Theegala, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and J.T. Poston. Other notable players include Maverick McNealy, Davis Riley and Adam Hadwin. Past PLAYERS Championship winners Rickie Fowler and Jason Day are also playing, as is defending champion, Cameron Champ.

Course History

TPC Twin Cities was designed by Arnold Palmer in 2000, with collaboration from former PGA Tour great Tom Lehman. From 2001-2018, the course was an annual stop on the Champions Tour. After that contract ended, the course was renovated to prepare itself to host the 3M Open starting in 2019. The 2018 renovation (led by Steve Wenzloff) included the narrowing of fairways, addition of bunkers and tees, and lengthening the course to its current distance.

This will be the fourth edition of the 3M Open which has continued to be an annual staple on the PGA Tour schedule. There are not many changes to the course from last year. A few tee boxes have been leveled and expanded, but perhaps the biggest change is that the rough has been thickened by an inch and grown to a length of four inches.

The Course

Located in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, TPC Twin Cities is a Par 71, 7,431-yard course that features bentgrass fairways and greens, native prairie grasses, and 27 total bodies of water which are framed by mature oak, spruce and pine trees. In general, the course is quite bland from an architectural viewpoint. Many of the holes are indistinguishable because of all the water hazards, and the course has a Florida-type feel to it. There are also so many houses lining the course that the beauty of the property is somewhat tainted.