This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
3M Open
Blaine, Minnesota
TPC Twin Cities - Par 71 - 7,431 yards
Field - 156 entrants
Purse - $8.1M
The Preview
Excluding the Olympic Men's Golf Competition next week, just two regular season events remain on the PGA Tour's 2024 schedule as the battle near the bubble of the coveted top-70 mark in the FedExCup standings intensifies after the final chapter of this year's major championship chronicles concluded with Xander Schauffele hoisting the Claret Jug for his second major victory of the season last week across the pond. We now return stateside to a muggy Blaine, Minnesota where the sixth edition of the 3M Open unfortunately draws an underwhelming strength of field, though the risk-reward brand of golf here hopefully keeps some eyes glued to the coverage.
TPC Twin Cities is a lengthy par-71 layout that features a plethora of water hazards off the tee, so a combination of both driving distance and accuracy is required in order to rack up scoring opportunities and avoid the demoralizing doubles or worse. Bombers should be able to reach all three of the par-5s in two, however, while quality long-iron play will be helpful on several 200-plus yard par-3s as well. Some of the simplest and smoothest bentgrass greens you'll find on Tour complete the venue, which is sure to become a birdie carnival if the wind doesn't howl.
Recent Champions
2023 - Lee Hodges
2022 - Tony Finau
2021 - Cameron Champ
2020 - Michael Thompson
2019 - Matthew Wolff
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Approach
Birdie or Better percentage
SG: Off-the-Tee
Proximity: 175-plus yards
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Tony Finau - $42
Despite carding a second-round 81 at The Open Championship to miss the cut this past week, it's still Finau over Sahith Theegala ($43) for me at the top of this board, and it's not particularly close. Course history sways heavily in favor of the 2022 3M Open champion, but more importantly, Finau statistically models better than Theegala in a handful of key areas, as the former resides top-3 over his last 24 rounds in each of SG: Approach, P5: 550-600 Efficiency, Birdies or Better Gained and Bogey Avoidance, to name a few. Prior to the MC at Royal Troon, Finau placed T8-T3-T5 from the Memorial Tournament through the Travelers Championship while gaining a collective 25.2 strokes from tee to green along the way.
Akshay Bhatia - $40
Bhatia missed the cut by just one shot in his Open Championship debut last week in Scotland where he made 10 bogeys or worse across 36 holes, but he'd previously racked up four straight top-25s from the Memorial Tournament to the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and he's still top-15 over his last 12 rounds in Bogey Avoidance, SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Putting. The 22-year-old has made the 15th-most birdies on the PGA Tour this season, and his power/accuracy combo with the driver is a major asset both at TPC Twin Cities and from a fantasy projection perspective.
Glue Guys
Erik van Rooyen - $36
The former Golden Gopher and 2012 Minnesota State Amateur champion hasn't played well in his first three career 3M Opens, but van Rooyen now sits top-30 in both SG: OTT and SG: APP over his last 24 rounds, and he hasn't lost strokes off the tee since mid-April. He turned in an average of 102.1 fantasy points per event at his last two pit stops at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the Genesis Scottish Open, ultimately finishing T6-T39 on those leaderboards. This is definitely more of a GPP suggestion than cash, given van Rooyen's propensity for finding the occasional water feature now and again.
Keith Mitchell - $35
Despite posting a pair of fifth-place finishes here in his last two trips to TPC Twin Cities, I'm hoping for a bit less ownership than the market might project on a $35 Mitchell after notching back-to-back missed cuts at the Genesis Scottish Open and the Barracuda Championship. This feels like a good bounce-back spot for Mitchell to lean on his driver, though he's also top-5 in SG: Approach and No. 1 in Opportunities Gained over his last 24 rounds. The flat stick has been a massive issue for Mitchell this season, but he's putted extremely well in three of his four previous 3M Open appearances.
Bargain Bin
Luke Clanton - $25
The 20-year-old Florida State product continues to cruise in PGA Tour events despite his amateur status, securing finishes of T41-T10-T2-T37 from the U.S. Open to the ISCO Championship. This brilliant run has earned him 25-1 outright odds to win this week, which aren't even close to being in line with this $25 salary, indicating a market imbalance somewhere (hint: it's here). As a result, expect healthy ownership percentages on Clanton in both cash and GPP contests.
Michael Thorbjornsen - $24
The top 2024 PGA Tour University rankings finisher proved capable of producing in a birdie-fest when he tallied 27 total tweeters en route to a T2 at the John Deere Classic earlier this month. Thorbjornsen has gained a collective 6.8 strokes with his irons across his past two measured outings, and over his last 12 rounds, he's top-20 in driving distance, Opportunities Gained, Prox: 200-plus, P3: 200-225, and P5: 550-600 Efficiency.
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