From local champion to PGA pro, Blaine's Caleb VanArragon gets 3M Open invite

Blaine's own Caleb VanArragon was the pro in his 3M Open's Monday pro-am pairings even though he'll play his fifth season at Valparaiso University come fall.

Winner of this month's Minnesota State Open and Minnesota Golf Association State Amateur Championship by a whopping 21 shots combined, VanArragon on Sunday night received the last unrestricted exemption for a PGA Tour event that starts Thursday at TPC Twin Cities, just eight minutes from his home.

3M Open Executive Director Hollis Cavner texted and asked VanArragon to call him.

"I told myself there's only one thing this could be," VanArragon said. "So that was so cool. This is one of the coolest experiences in my life, that's for sure."

VanArragon was scheduled to play a 3M Open Monday qualifier with PGA Tour veterans Ben Crane and Jonas Blixt, who between them have won eight times on tour and played 678 events.

Cavner's text put him in the 156-man field instead, while neither would-be playing partner qualified from among 65 players competing for four available spots at nearby Victory Links.

"It would have been a cool group," he said. "I'm glad I'm doing this instead."

He was asked if these last three weeks have sunk in yet.

"Not at all," VanArragon said. "Maybe they do after this tournament, but not before."

VanArragon's mother Janel caddied for him Monday, and his college coach David Gring will loop for him starting Thursday. He carried his own bag in winning the State Open at Oak Ridge Country Club by nine shots and the State Am at Minneapolis Golf Club by a record-breaking 12 shots. Included was a rare albatross with a 9-iron on Minneapolis Golf Club's par-5 first hole.

"My goal this tournament is just the same as the last two, which is to have absolutely no expectations," he said. "Hit every shot one at a time and don't really care about the results until it's over. I know how hard it is to follow one good tournament with another good one. I did a really good job going into the Am not really expecting anything but playing every shot for what it was."

VanArragon might have something of a home-field advantage: He first played the TPC Twin Cities course when he was 6. He played on a PGA Junior League team there all through elementary and middle school. He estimates he has played there 100 times, even if most were nine-hole, junior league rounds.

The course was lengthened, the fairways narrowed and some green complexes remade in 2019 for the PGA Tour's arrival. Nonetheless, it still feels like home.

"I've played here a lot," VanArragon said. "I'm very familiar with the course."

PGA Tour player Dylan Frittelli played in the group ahead of him on Monday. VanArragon remembers watching Frittelli at the inaugural tournament four years ago. He says he has attended PGA Tour Champions events at TPC Twin Cities since he was 7.

"I just remember watching Tom Watson putt on 18," VanArragon said. "I think he three-putted. I very clearly remember watching him, and now I'm here, playing. It's perfect timing, that's for sure."

• Former Gophers golfer Alex Gaugert's 65 at Victory Links in Blaine earned him one of four Monday qualifying spots. Gaugert, of Edina, advanced in a 4-for-3 playoff after Daniel Gale, from Castle Hill, Australia, led everyone with an 11-under-par 60 that included nine birdies and an eagle. Kaito Onishi, from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and Noah Hofman, from McCook, Neb., also advanced from the playoff to claim a qualifying spot.

• David Lingmerth and Luke List withdrew on Monday. Sean O'Hair, Kevin Chappell and Grayson Murray made the field.