Most of the world’s elite golfers take the week after the open championship, but for the second level of PGA Tour players, it’s time to lock themselves and strengthen their curriculum vitae.
With two weeks to do in the regular season, players will all be 3M Open business, starting Thursday at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn.
There is no lack of recognizable names in the field – Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark, Sungjae IM of South Korea and Adam Scott in Australia – while they are trying to stack the points of the Fedex Cup before the end of the regular season next week at Wyndham Championship.
For Tony Finau, former 3M open champion, the issues are certainly higher than usual. At n ° 59 in the points race, he is in the Top 70 which will qualify for the playoffs of the Fedex Cup, but only the top 50 after the first stage of the playoffs will advance. Finish in the top 50 also means access to the signature events of next year.
“Yes, it is definitely in my mind because I know how important this number of the 50 is,” finished Finau on Wednesday. “So it’s really something in my mind, but it’s really there, it’s back. At the forefront of my mind, this week plays good golf … If you play good golf, it’s always-things always take care of themselves.”
Finau played the six editions of the 3M Open and never finished worse than T28. From his 24 laps to Par-71, 7,431 TPC TPC Twin yards, he pulled worse only 70 once. Finau followed its revolutionary victory in 2022 with T7 and T12 ended the last two years.
“Winning in 22 is a highlight, but I had great finishes,” said Finau. “It is a golf course that I like to play, usually gives birdies and I always look forward to returning here in Minnesota.”
Lee Hodges set the score record for the 24-mine tournament of 260 when he won in 2023, and Jhonattan Vegas du Venezuela prevailed last year for his first victory on tour since 2017.
“To be honest, it was rather pleasant to see a fairly solid field this week,” said Vegas. “And I mean, these tournaments are so important at the moment. I am talking to some other players as soon as you are in the standings at the moment, you are still fighting for something, and with so many small tournaments before the qualifiers now, especially this kind of tournament at the end of the season.”
Something else for which American players are fighting right now: the points of the Ryder Cup. The six best Americans of the qualification points on August 17 will automatically make the team, and the six choices of Keegan Bradley are a mystery that he was largely expected to choose himself.
Finau, 21st rank of these rankings, has work to do to prove that it is up to the team. A place below him is a recent surprise, Chris Gotterup.
The 26-year-old Gotterup won his second PGA Tour event two weeks ago at the open of Genesis Scottish open, then concluded the championship opened on weekends before finishing a third distant from Scottie Scheffler. However, this brought it to n ° 27 in the official ranking of world golf course and 23 in the Fedex Cup race.
“By going through (in Europe) classified 80th or anything and by returning 20 – anything, I have the impression of having a set of different circumstances before me,” said Gotterup. “I would like to go to (the touring championship in) East Lake and then, obviously, see what is happening from there.”
– field level media
