Top 5 players to watch at the 2023 3M Open
The 3M Open will be played starting next Thursday at the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. It will be the second-to-last tournament of the current PGA Tour season and will have a purse of $7.8 million.
Several interesting players will be present at the 3M Open, including 32 members of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) Top 100. Others not included in that list will also be attracting attention, due to their most recent performances or their history on the circuit.
Defending champ @tonyfinaugolf is happy to be back in Minnesota. #3MOpen pic.twitter.com/2k6t4wDI4b
Let's take a look at the top five players that make up the field of the 3M Open 2023.
#1: 3M Open top-ranked golfer Cameron Young
The 3M Open is the second tournament this month that Cameron Young (15th) has entered as a top-ranked golfer. In the previous one (John Deere Classic), he finished T6 with a score of 16-under 268.
In addition, Young arrives a week after a relevant performance in The Open Championship. At Hoylake, he finished T8 with a score of 5-under 279.
During the last two months, Young has participated in six tournaments, has been cut only once (The Memorial Tournament) and his two best placings have been, precisely, the last two. In this period, he has played 27 rounds, scoring par or better in 20 of them.
#2: Tony Finau
Tony Finau (19) arrives at the 3M Open 2023 as defending champion, as he won the previous season by three strokes over Emiliano Grillo and Sungjae Im. Finau is closing an excellent season in which he has won twice (Cadence Bank Houston Open and Mexico Open at Vidanta).
However, after his victory in Mexico, Finau has been experiencing some setbacks. In that period, he has participated in seven tournaments and has been cut three times, two of them consecutively at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and The Open Championship.
#3: Justin Thomas
The winner of 15 PGA Tour tournaments, two of them majors, Justin Thomas (24th) is not going through his best season in professional golf. Especially the recent past has been very unfavorable for him.
In the last two months heading to the 3M Open, Thomas has missed four cuts in six appearances. In the rest of the season, he had only been cut once.
So far this year, his best has only finished three times in the top 10 (out of 18 events played), the last of them at the Travelers Championship a month ago (T9). His best result of the season dates back to February when he finished fourth at the VW Phoenix Open.
#4: Sepp Straka
Austrian Sepp Straka (25th) did save his best results for the end of the season, as he strung together wins at the John Deer Classic and T2 at The Open Championship.
In his last four appearances, he has played 16 rounds (he has not been cut). Only two of them he has played above par.
In addition, Straka has achieved the two best results of his career in majors this year. With the T2 of the British Open, he adds the T7 of the PGA Championship.
#5: Sungjae Im
Sungjae Im (27th) is a player without spectacular results but with a very stable performance during the current season. In 25 tournaments, he managed to overcome 20 cuts and has finished seven times in the top 10.
In his last four appearances heading to the 3M Open, he has suffered only one cut (Scottish Open) and has achieved three top 30s, including the T20 of the recently-concluded The Open Championship.