Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
CBS Sports
2024 3M Open predictions, expert picks, odds, field rankings, golf best bets at TPC Twin Cities
By Patrick McDonald,
2024-07-23
Getty Images
The race to the FedEx Cup Playoffs is officially on. With the final major championship of the season in the rearview, players will shift their focus to the postseason where the top 70 players will punch their tickets. Many of those jostling for the positioning have traveled to Blaine, Minnesota, for this week's 2024 3M Open as the regular season quickly draws to an end.
Tony Finau headlines the action as the 2022 champion seeks his first win since the Mexico Open last spring. A model of consistency, Finau arrives having just slipped up at The Open with rounds of 71-81 to miss the cut. While Finau may be the biggest name in this field, it is Sahith Theegala who is the highest-ranked player in the FedEx Cup standings.
Inside the top 10, Theegala is in line for the best finish of his career in the season-long race, but he still seeks that first victory of the season. Those in the field who have already found the winner's circle in 2024 include Akshay Bhatia, Billy Horschel, Taylor Pendrith, Cameron Davis, Austin Eckroat and Nick Dunlap, who's fresh off his second victory of the year at last week's Barracuda Championship.
While those players look ahead to the BMW Championship and potentially the Tour Championship, others are not so lucky. Defending champion Lee Hodges finds his name firmly on the bubble as the 71st-ranked player in the FedEx Cup standings as he hopes a return to TPC Twin Cities can spark a late-season run. Other notables in need of a big week include Adam Schenk, Keith Mitchell, Kurt Kitayama and Joel Dahmen.
Sam Burns (18-1): Burns has been solid stateside before he was a surprise addition to the penultimate game Sunday at The Open. Playing in the easiest of the conditions throughout the week, the American struggled in his first real taste of major contention with a final-round 80. He returns to TPC Twin Cities for the third time in his career looking for continued momentum in the states as he enters the week 30th in the FedEx Cup standings. A top-10 result in his tournament debut in 2019 may be cause for excitement because he has been known to be frisky in fields of this quality.
Akshay Bhatia (22-1): Bhatia has battled his way all the way up to 14th in the FedEx Cup standings thanks to his win in San Antonio and a couple close calls at the Travelers Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic. His first trip to The Open resulted in a missed cut, but he continues to drive the golf ball as well as ever in his young career ranking inside the top 25 in this field in terms of driving accuracy and strokes gained off the tee over the last three months. That will be important this week with the number of water hazards throughout this par-71 layout.
Sahith Theegala (22-1): It was a mixed bag for Theegala in Scotland as he contended at the Scottish Open resulting in a T4 and missed the cut badly in the final major of the season. That two week stretch across the pond is emblematic of Theegala's season as he has accounted for four top fives and four missed cuts including three since the end of April. He will need to have a better ball-striking performance this week if he expects to see the weekend for the first time in his fourth start at the 3M Open.
Luke Clanton (25-1): In the first-ever 3M Open, a young phenom named Matthew Wolff claimed victory. Can Clanton do the same? The amateur has been stellar on the PGA Tour with four straight made cuts including contention runs at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and John Deere Classic where he finished second and topped the field in strokes gained tee to green. He's long, he's powerful and he's playing with a whole lot of confidence for a 20-year-old.
Billy Horschel (28-1): How will the disappointment of The Open affect Horschel this week? Playing in the final game on Sunday, Horschel was upended by a scorching hot Xander Schauffele and had to settle for a runner-up result — his best major finish of his career. The Florida Gator was sensational throughout the bag, but he will now have to battle a quick turnaround and a change in time zones. He has four top 25s in his last seven starts and finished T13 in his tournament debut a season ago.
Keegan Bradley (30-1)
Tom Hoge (33-1)
Keith Mitchell (35-1)
Taylor Pendrith (35-1)
2024 3M Open expert picks
Winner (11-1): Finau was the benefactor of Scott Piercy collapsing down the stretch in 2022, but there is a real chance he takes over this tournament early and often this year. He comes in with a win, two top 10s and two other top 30s in five starts at the 3M Open and is the clear class of this field. The missed cut at The Open can be forgotten given the conditions he played in, but before that, Finau had rattled off five straight top 20s and three straight top 10s. He leads this field in strokes gained total, strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained approach over the last three months.
Contender (50-1): It's been a pretty under the radar type of season for Kitayama; he only has one top 10 with that coming at the WM Phoenix Open in February. While the results have not stacked up, his statistics have as he ranks third in strokes gained tee to green and inside the top 15 in terms of strokes gained off the tee and strokes gained approach over the last three months. It is clear Kitayama has the ball-striking chops to contend in this field, and if the putter cooperates, he could be the latest bomber to win at TPC Twin Cities.
Sleeper (66-1): Eckroat won earlier this season at a water-riddled PGA National, which should give him confidence he can take apart TPC Twin Cities. The American ranks inside the top 10 in driving accuracy and strokes gained off the tee among those in this field and is beginning to find some form with his irons as well. The putter has been poor for most of the summer, but when he gains strokes on the greens he tends to pop up on the first or second page of the leaderboard like he did at this tournament in 2021.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Most Popular
Comments / 0