3M Open

Words cannot describe how amazing of a finish The Open Championship was last week. I was thrilled with the entire week, however I wish the course played a little tougher. Nonetheless, America's very own Collin Morikawa took home the 149th Open Championship. Now what Collin is doing in major championships thus far is nothing short of incredible. 

In the past year Morikawa has one two majors, what’s even more impressive is that he won the PGA Championship in his first appearance, and now he’s claimed The Open Championship in his first appearance. That is so beyond impressive. Prior to the week Morikawa was doing some club tinkering because he was unfamiliar with the grass in Europe. This makes his win that much better because he thought his way into this win. He changed what needed to be changed, understood how the grass would play a part and handled the conditions extremely well. Although Morikawa won, there were a lot more headlines throughout the week.

To no surprise Bryson DeChambeau is back in the media for all the wrong reasons. Bryson has always struggled with what he says. He gets so amped up and says the absolute worst things. This week Bryson went above and beyond to criticize anyone but himself. As well all know Bryson’s play style is extremely aggressive. He plays the “hit it as far as I can and go find it” game play. Now this works well sometimes and other times it does not. During the first round of The Open Bryson struggled off the tee missing pretty much every fair except for two in his opening round. Now instead of saying my bomb and gauge, hit it far and go find it play style didn’t work today, Bryson thought it would be a good idea to blame the driver itself and Cobra, the club company he uses for his struggles off the tee. This right here sets me off anybody that blames the club is absolutely ridiculous. I can see if the club is actually broken or defective, but that was the case Bryson just hit it badly off the tee. Kudos to Cobra for coming back and Bryson and not letting him tarnish the name of their great company. Bryson needs to think long and hard before he further damages his image and the image of his other sponsors in the future. Naturally followed by Bryson comments were the snarky, low blows put forth by none other than Brooks Koepka himself. Following Brook’s second round he commented saying “I drove the ball great, I love my driver.” Anybody who is shocked by this clearly hasn’t watched or followed golf the past 4 months. This was a perfect opportunity for Brooks to troll Bryson and he took complete advantage over the situation. Brooks Koepka also backdoored a top 10 with a final round 65 which probably didn’t sit well with Bryson considering the issues he had throughout the week. It should be interesting to see what happens at the Ryder Cup this year. Will the boys be able to put aside their differences to get the job done? I sure hope so. 

Just because major season is over, that doesn’t mean all the big events are done. This week in particular we are in for a treat. Starting Friday the Olympics begin in Tokyo. Golf will yet again be played in the Olympics this year and so far the field is looking pretty strong. However golf doesn’t start till next Wednesday the 28th. We will five more in-depth next week on the course, the field, the fan situation and how the Olympics will take place will all the lingering Covid-19 restrictions. Hopping back across the pond to Blaine, Minnesota for the 3M Open. 

This week the PGA Tour heads to TPC Twin Cities, in Blaine, Minnesota for the 3M. I wasn’t all that surprised to see a strong field this week. Most events after a major have a relatively strong field, plus a lot of players bailed out of the Olympics as well. This week fans can tune in to a lot of good players such as Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson and Stewart Cink. On top of great players TPC Twin Cities is an absolute gem and it always provides incredible finishes. Most notable would be Matt Wolfe’s maiden victory in 2019 when he made a 30+ foot putt for eagle on 18 to edge out Collin Morikawa and Bryson Dechambeau. I’m hoping for another insane finish. We’ve been blessed this year with the amount of close calls, long playoffs and heroic shots coming down the stretch. Let's hope history repeats itself and fans get another jaw-dropping finish. (Mike)

This blog has always been loud in its criticism of Bryson and we were never alone in the golf world, but last week it seemed like things really swung against Bryson. It was no longer a little fun feud between Bryson and Brooks. It was everyone poking fun at Bryson for his ridiculousness after he blamed his driver for his poor play. There is no doubt Bryson is a skilled golfer, but he seems to be more unlikable by the day and eventually that will catch up to you on tour. Being disliked by many out there has to drain you mentally when everyone is rooting against you, but some athletes excel in those situations. It is time for Bryson to show us which one he is. 

I was also a little bummed about how many scoring records were being set during The Open. It was a combination of some silly good golf, not a lot of wind for long periods of time and the course being set up to play a little easier. I would have liked to see the fairways really run out and the greens be much faster. I was shocked to see the greens roll so slow and allow players to really be aggressive. We always hear about how the rough will be so bad all week, but never really seems like it comes into play as much as we would like. Same with the pot bunkers. There were plenty of players in the bunkers this past week, but it did not seem like the kind of hazard we have been used to seeing at The Open. (Tyler)

Pick’s of the Week:

Mike: It’s really wild how bad I am at picking winners for golf. I understand it’s difficult but I’m just not good at it. Nevertheless I’m gonna keep picking till I get it right. This week’s winning pick goes to Bubba Watson. Despite him missing The Open due to Covid-19 exposure, leading up to that he’s been playing some really solid golf. I’d expect at the very least a top 10 from Bubba this week.  

My notable to miss the cut goes to Patrick Reed. Reed struggled last week in The Open, especially with his putter. I think he still is lacking confidence with the flat stick. He’s not making the critical par saves that help control your round. Should be interesting to see how these guys readjust to the grass in America after coming back from Europe. 

Lastly my underdog of the week pick goes to J.T Poston. If anybody followed the Barbasol Championships last week you’d know that J.T. Poston had a real shot to win. He unfortunately hit one of his tee shots out of bounds on the back 9 that resulted in a double bogey. However he did manage to make his way into a playoff, but ultimately fell short. However I believe Poston has winning at his fingertips and this would be a huge breakout week for him. His confidence is high, and he knows he can win, watch out for this guy to make a run at it. (Mike)

Tyler: My pick’s last week were terrible. No other way to really put it. Not a great year for major picks for me, but I have over 250 days to think about who I will pick at Augusta in the spring. For the 3M this week I am going with Dustin Johnson at 7-1. I am a bit surprised to see him playing this week, but he is by far the best player in the field. That does not always guarantee a win as we know, but if he shows up with his A-/B+ game this week, I like his chances to win convincingly. 

My sleeper pick this week is Matt Kuchar at 125-1. He has been relatively quiet lately, but I expect that to change in the coming weeks. He is as consistent as they come and I expect to see him make a late season playoff push starting this week. He is one of the better players in this week’s field even if he has not played like it recently. 

I do not have a notable to miss the cut this week since there are not too many notables playing, but I do want to highlight that events like The 3M Open are so important because they give guys trying to establish themselves on tour a chance in a week where many of the big names are sitting out. There are a lot of lesser known names this week and it is almost a sure thing that at least a few of them will make very long careers on the PGA Tour. So even though this week does not have the allure of a major, there is still plenty of reason to tune in. It is almost a better viewing experience when you have some of those lesser known names battle it out, because sometimes it seems to truly mean more. (Tyler)