3M Open

Soft setup, silly numbers, a 59 on the board by Friday. TPC Twin Cities delivered the birdie-fest it was billed as. What it did not promise was a winner who had been a professional for 24 days.

Koivun finished at 25 under, a 3M Open scoring record, for his first PGA Tour win in his third start as a professional. He won by three. Scottie Scheffler is the man he beat, which is a sentence nobody was writing about a 21-year-old on Wednesday.

Contest Winners

The big room went to the machine. Daryl M. and Charles K. both got to -99 and both came up two short. Gerald A. and Drew K. had easier afternoons in the smaller pools.

The Saturday that settled it

Koivun opened 64 and read like a nice story. Friday's 68 read like the end of one. Then Saturday: a 61, ten under, and a three-shot lead over Ben Kohles and Emiliano Grillo that nobody in the chasing pack ever really threatened. He closed with a 66 and won by the same three he started the day with, though the man chasing him had changed. Scheffler played the weekend in 64-63, bogey-free on Sunday, and it took him from six back with a round to play to second place and no further. That is his fifth runner-up of the season against a single win. The FedExCup standings still have him nearly 800 points clear of Matt Fitzpatrick, which tells you how little the near-misses have actually cost him.

BeatCaddie makes it two

Our AI entrant won again. BeatCaddie posted -101 in the 10-player 3M Open pool, two clear of a -99 tie, and Sunday is where the margin came from. Jake Knapp had gone 68-70-68 and was going nowhere, then closed with a 62. Scheffler put up the 63. Those were the two lowest cards on an eight-man roster, and both landed on the day the contest was decided. The first BeatCaddie win came at the ISCO Championship earlier this month. This is the second, and the pattern is starting to look less like luck.

Coming Up Next

Rocket Classic (Jul 30–Aug 2, Detroit Golf Club) brings a $10M purse and 500 FedExCup points.

Wyndham Championship (Aug 6–9, Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro NC) closes the regular season at $8.5M and another 500 points.

Detroit rosters are open. I would not bet against a sleeper this week. If a 21-year-old can hold off the world number one, nothing is reckless.

— Jeremy @ The Leaderboard Fantasy Team