Paul Goydos, past winner in Blaine, makes 3M Open field as short-hitting alternate

At 58 years old, Paul Goydos contends he's playing some of the best golf of his life. Sure, he's had a run of top 10 success this summer on the PGA Tour Champions, but he doesn't hit the ball far, hasn't won any tournaments lately and said his short game is "scratchy."

Wait — best golf of his life?

Asked to explain, Goydos spent 47 seconds on the then-and-now importance of accuracy over length and other golfspeak.

Then, nonchalantly, he plopped a ball on the TPC Twin Cities practice putting green and sent it to the bottom of a cup cut 15 feet away.

When you know a place, you know a place.

Well down the 3M Open alternate list last weekend when the initial field was announced, players started dropping out in droves and Goydos' number began to rise. He got the call Monday he was next up and decided to make the trip back to Minnesota.

Goydos is in Blaine this week for the first time since the 50-and-over 3M Championship swan song in 2018, when he played as defending champion. The previous summer, Goydos rode a second-round 12-under-par 60 and a just-barely-cleared-the-water shot on the first playoff hole, No. 18, to beat Gene Sauers for the trophy.

"Places like this have a specialness to them," Goydos said. "My first Ben Hogan Tour event, my first PGA Tour event, this place with the Champions Tour. To come here after winning the thing once, that's pretty cool as well."

With the late notice he was in the tournament, his first PGA Tour event since the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational (he won at Bay Hill in 1996), Goydos had yet to see much of TPC Twin Cities in person as of Wednesday afternoon. But he's been paying attention to the first three iterations of the 3M Open.

"I know they've lengthened the bejeezus out of it," he said. "I'm sure the two guys I'm playing with can move [the ball] 10 miles and I hit it nowhere. It will be interesting."

When Goydos won here, he needed just 33 putts in one 30-hole stretch. Play like that again, no matter where you are, no matter what tour, and chances are in your favor.

"I'm not going to all of a sudden find 30 yards but, yeah, make some putts and I'll be fine," he said. "Can I win? That seems a little far-fetched."

"That club is gone," he said. "I use a hybrid now."