3M Open gives young, unheralded golfers a good shot at a PGA Tour title

Five years after rookies Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff all played in Blaine, five more young players will make their 3M Open debuts this week at TPC Twin Cities.

Back in 2019, those three were relatively little known — that is until Wolff made a winning eagle putt from up against the green collar to beat both Morikawa and young sensation Bryson DeChambeau by a stroke each.

This time around, Nick Dunlap, Luke Clanton, Neal Shipley, Michael Thorbjornsen and Gophers golfer Ben Warian all are in the 156-man field headlined by world-ranked Top 30 players Sahith Theegala (11th) and 2022 3M Open champion Tony Finau (18th), late commitment Akshay Bhatia (26th) and Sam Burns (28th).

The tournament begins Thursday.

Major winners Justin Rose, Zach Johnson, Gary Woodland, Keegan Bradley, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink all committed by Friday afternoon’s entry deadline. So did players with Minnesota connections — former Gopher Erik van Rooyen on his way to the Paris Olympics for South Africa, Tom Hoge, Troy Merritt and local PGA section champion Jeff Sorenson.

Rose, Burns and Billy Horschel contended Sunday at the British Open but Xander Schauffele won the Claret Jug at Royal Troon. Rose (gold) and Matt Kuchar (bronze) both are Olympic medalists as well.

Getting young guns is a strategy Pro Links Sports CEO Hollis Cavner has adopted from the college tournaments his company presents and the sponsor’s exemptions he offers for the 3M Open and his other PGA Tour events. It’s intended to build relationships with the next generation of stars and strengthen fields affected by Saudi Arabia-backed LIV golf that has taken big-name and young talent alike from the PGA Tour.

In response, the PGA Tour created designated “signature events” designed to counter the huge paydays LIV golf offers. The 3M Open isn’t one of the signature events.

This summer’s 3M Open is in a schedule slot between the British Open and the Paris Olympics golf competition.

Dunlap, 20, in January became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson did so in 1991. He turned pro the week after he made a clutch 6-foot putt to win the American Express in Palm Springs, Calif. And on Sunday, he won Barracuda Championship in Truckee, Calif., becoming the first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and a pro in the same year.

Dunlap and and Tiger Woods are the only men to win the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur.

Clanton, 20, is headed back to Florida State for his junior season after a summer in which he already tied for 10th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and was runner-up with Thorbjornsen and others at the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill. He’s the first amateur with back-to-back top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour since 1958. He will make his fourth tour start as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption.

Runner-up to Dunlap in last summer’s U.S. Am, Shipley was low amateur at this year’s Masters and U.S. Open and then turned pro. He tied for sixth at the ISCO Championship two weeks ago. Former Stanford golfer Thorbjornsen was a runner-up at the Rocket Mortgage as well.

Defending 3M Open champion Lee Hodges finished tied for 12th at the PGA Championship in May, but his only PGA Tour victory since he turned pro in 2018 remains his wire-to-wire victory at TPC Twin Cities last July.

“It’s so hard, just because every day someone is going to play,” Hodges said. “To keep making birdies and keep there mentally the whole time was just amazing. There are so many good guys in these kind of tournaments. So many good players, even the young guys. Now you worry about these 18-year-old guys who can shoot 58. It’s just getting harder every year.”

A 15-year-old from Florida, Miles Russell made his PGA Tour debut in Detroit last month. He shot rounds of 74 and 70 and missed the cut.

“Even the younger ones, like Miles Russell, I mean the guy is 15 years old,” Clanton said. “Absurd for him to play his first PGA Tour event like that. It’s awesome to see for sure.”

Russell still is years away from attending college and already making headlines.

“College golf is hard,” Clanton said at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “I don’t think people realize how hard it is to win out there. I think every single week of college golf we have 20 guys amazing who can play out here. My generation of golfers is going to be awesome. We have great players coming up. I can name 20 right now who can win a PGA Tour event. Winning in college is pretty sweet because it’s hard.”

Clanton intends to return to Florida State for his junior season, seeking NCAA team and individual titles.

“I want to win a national championship with the team,” he said. “That’s been my No. 1 goal in college. All of us back home are very driven to do it.”

There’s name, image, likeness (NIL) money out there?

“There’s a little bit, no doubt,” Clanton said. “It’s enough for a college student, for sure. I don’t really need a lot of money right now. I’m 20 years old. I’m still at Florida State University. It’s enough to handle what we have here.”