Golf betting tips: Preview and tips for the 2023 3M Open

The event is hosted by TPC Twin Cities and is Minnesota’s first regular PGA Tour event for almost fifty years. The 2019 edition of the tournament marked the first staging of the 3M Open.

TPC Twin Cities is located in Minneapolis and opened for play in 2000. The layout was designed by Arnold Palmer with Minnesota native, Tom Lehman, acting as player consultant.

Course Overview

The course is a member of the Tournament Players Club (TPC) network which is operated by the PGA Tour. From 2001, TPC Twin Cities hosted the 3M Championship on the PGA Champions Tour. However, in 2018, it was announced that the Champions Tour event would be replaced by the 3M Open on the PGA Tour in a seven year deal.

The setup for the Champions Tour event annually produced low scoring. Its wide fairways, low rough, accessible pin placements and manageable bunkers all contributed to the 3M Championship birdie-fest.

In an effort to challenge the world’s best golfers, Tom Lehman was retained to oversee a remodeling of the course for the 3M Open.

The upgraded TPC Twin Cities plays as a 7,431 yards Par 71 for the 3M Open. The general layout for the course hasn’t change but hole number 3, which is normally a Par 5, plays as a Par 4 for the tournament. Length was added on a number of holes through the construction of several new tee boxes. In all almost 500 yards in length was added to the course.

As part of the the remodeling, fairways were narrowed and rough higher putting more pressure on the driver. Course management is important in order to put the ball in the right position to attack the pins. In addition some of the bunkering was expanded.

TPC Twin Cities Scorecard

Hole	Par	Yards	Hole	Par	Yards
1	4	416	10	4	379
2	4	468	11	4	467
3	4	501	12	5	593
4	3	177	13	3	228
5	4	424	14	4	437
6	5	594	15	4	451
7	4	381	16	4	411
8	3	204	17	3	202
9	4	502	18	5	596
Out	35	3667	In	36	3764
			Par		71
			Total		7431

Par	#	Shortest	Longest	Average
3’s	4	177	228	203
4’s	11	379	502	440
5’s	3	593	596	594

3M Open Past Champions

Year	Player	Score	To par
2022	Tony Finau	267	-17
2021	Cameron Champ	269	-15
2020	Michael Thompson	265	-19
2019	Matthew Wolff	263	-21

3M Open Winning Formula

The following table details the Average Strokes Gained in each of the key strokes gained categories for the past four champions of the 3M Open.

Last 4 Champions Strokes Gained Category	Average Strokes Gained	Average Finishing Position SG Category
SGOTT	0.943	38th
SGAPR	5.637	7th
SGARG	0.310	43rd
SGP	4.159	22nd
SGT2G	6.890	13th

Graphing the above Average Strokes Gained gives a visual check on the likely key areas required for success at this week’s 3M Open.

3M Classic Picks 2023

Emiliano Grillo 25/1 (E/W) – the Argentinian has good history at TPC Twin Cities, finishing T3 in 2020 and T2 last year. Enjoying a rock-solid season with 6 x Top 10’s among 9 x Top 25’s including a victory in the Charles Schwab Challenge back in May. He also finished an eye-catching T6 in last week’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. His excellent play is under-scored by his stats, placing 10^th in this week’s Stats Analysis. The seasoned campaigner has heated up recently and his experience will stand him in good stead. Event Form tick, Current Form tick, Stats Analysis tick. What’s not to like at these odds?

Adam Hadwin 33/1 (E/W) – this will be his 4^th look at TPC Twin Cities with his previous results reading 4-T6-T38. Has 5 x Top 10’s so far this season including a runner-up finish a few weeks back in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Statistically balanced throughout the bag, the 35-year-old Canadian tops the pile in this week’s Stats Analysis. Among the elite in the field, he has an excellent blend of skill set and experience to challenge this week. Returning to a course where he has previous strong showings is a plus and should fancy his chances based on field strength. Good each way value.