Justin Thomas outlasts Koepka to take home WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

Forget monsters (Oakland Hills), snakes (Copperhead Course at Innisbrook) and bears (PGA National). If you had to anthropomorphize the old TPC Twin Cities, which has been totally redone for this week’s inaugural 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota, you might settle on a Teletubby, or one of those Saint Bernard puppies with the tiny cask affixed to its collar.  The course was downright cuddly when it hosted a PGA TOUR Champions event, the 3M Championship, from 2001-18. Paul Goydos and Kenny Perry each shot 60; David Frost’s 25-under 191 in 2010 tied the all-time 54-hole record on that circuit; and in 2017 alone the tournament saw the fifth and eighth most under-par scores in a single round in Champions history. In the last 10 seasons, it ranked among the three easiest Champions courses eight times. RELATED: Hole-by-hole tour of TPC Twin Cities “The beauty of it is it was playable for the average guy,� says Tom Lehman, who is savoring the prospect of a regular TOUR event in his home state for the first time since 1969. “The greens weren’t super sloped, so you’d have a reasonable putt for par if you got it near the hole. It’s very enjoyable, and therefore the PGA TOUR Champions guys shot the grass off it.� But that was then. Late last summer, Lehman and the PGA TOUR design staff began renovating TPC Twin Cities to give it teeth for the likes of Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson. New tee boxes and bunkering will make it longer, and tighter fairways will make it more challenging. Short par 5s are now long par 4s. Then there’s the ever-expanding lake on 18. “I’m as curious as anybody to see how it plays differently,� says Lehman, who along with fellow Minnesotan Tim Herron will make a rare PGA TOUR start this week. Once a 7,000-yard par 72, the course is now a 7,450-yard par 71. (The old par-5 third hole has become a 500-plus-yard par 4.) The par-5 sixth measures over 600 yards. The par-3 17th features a 229-yard forced carry over water. At the 596-yard, par-5 18th, the tee was moved right, and the size of the lake roughly doubled, adding intrigue to what can be a beguiling hole. “I made a 10 there last year in the second round,� says Goydos, who also eagled the old version of 18, typical of the finisher’s feast-or-famine nature. “It was an exciting risk-reward hole.�    And now it’s even more so. Simply put, this is not the same TPC Twin Cities. “Extensive,� 3M Tournament Director Peter Mele says of the renovations. Originally a 2000 Arnold Palmer design with input from Lehman, the first iteration of TPC Twin Cities was above all meant to be fun and playable. It succeeded. Now, as the host venue in a seven-year deal between the PGA TOUR and 3M Open, Minnesota’s first PGA TOUR event since the 2009 PGA Championship won by Y.E. Yang, TPC Twin Cities 2.0 aims to retain that playability while adding bite from the back tees. “I love it,� says Hollis Cavner, CEO of Pro Links Sports, which manages the 3M Open. “I think Tom did a tremendous job with the redo. Lumpy (Tim Herron) and some of the guys have been out playing it, and he says it’s all the golf course you’d ever want.� Nine holes feature new tees, Lehman says, increasing their length anywhere from 20 to 80 yards. Take the second, which used to be reachable with no more than a 3-wood and a wedge. After the renovations, it’s no longer a pushover – around 480 yards from the new back tee. The big changes even have TPC Twin Cities aficionados anticipating a steep learning curve. “I’ll have a better feel on the greens, but (Lehman) totally redid a lot of the fairways and changed the angles off the tees,� says Kenny Perry, 58, who won the final 3M Championship on the PGA TOUR Champions and also will play in the first 3M Open, his ninth start this season on the regular TOUR. “I’m going to have to redo all my sight lines.� Then there are the renovations to the green complexes, which could make players think twice when, say, trying to drive the short, par-4s seventh, 10th and 16th holes. Lehman says the 10th, in particular, has become a more formidable test after the back-right part of the green was eliminated – the only major change to the greens on the entire course “It was the ultimate birdie hole,� he says. “That back-right side of the green was a safety valve for when you hit a bad tee shot, so we eliminated that. Now when you get out of position, you’re not going to be able to hold the green from a bad spot on the left side.� At the 16th, he changed the greenside bunkering and added chipping areas to let the ball roll a bit more, giving players more to think about when the tees are moved up to make it drivable. Then there’s 18. It’s still a risk-reward par 5, but with the tee pushed some 100 yards right, it’s a true dogleg right. And with the lake doubled in size, it’s easier than ever to make a huge number. “It used to be you would hit it straight down the fairway, which was 100 yards wide, and the only way you’d go in the water is by hitting it too far,� Lehman says. “So, we moved the tee so you have a diagonal tee shot over the corner of the pond, and it’s a dogleg, and it’s 70 yards longer than it was. I’ve been watching guys hit 3-wood, 3-wood to 630-yard par 5s, so it’s still going to be a driver and an iron, but you’ve got to hit a way better tee shot.� All of which adds up to – what, exactly? No one is going to confuse TPC Twin Cities for the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, or Bethpage Black, but it’s no Teletubby, either. Most people expect the week’s lowest score to be in the 20s under par, maybe even high 20s. “I think the winning score is gonna be low,� Lehman says. “You really can’t make a course long enough for any of those guys. Guys will have really good driving weeks, and they’ll have ample targets in the greens, and the greens will be perfect. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s more difficult than it was, it’s narrower. It’ll be a tougher course to score on, relative to how it was.�

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Adam Scott survived a calamitous Sunday with just enough clutch putts and closed with 1-under 70 for a two-shot victory in the Genesis Invitational.

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SOUTHPORT, England – Rory McIlroy is the reigning FedExCup champ and owner of four major titles, but even he needs to be reminded of what he is capable of, especially after missing consecutive cuts. At his best, he can intimidate others by hitting tee shots where few can. His confidence was low, however, as he started the 146th Open Championship on Thursday. “I was nervous going out. I was a little anxious, timid,â€� he admitted. A tough start at Royal Birkdale didn’t help matters. He made bogey on four of his first five holes, which led caddie J.P. Fitzgerald to intervene. “You’re Rory McIlroy. What are you doing?â€� Fitzgerald implored his boss, according to McIlroy. McIlroy made another bogey at the sixth hole to fall to 5 over, but that was his last one of the day. Four back-nine birdies allowed McIlroy to salvage a 1-over 71. This has been a scattered season for McIlroy. Some distractions have been good, like his recent wedding. But there’s also been two injury-induced hiatuses, and equipment uncertainty that was finally resolved by his signing with TaylorMade in May. McIlroy missed the cut at the last major, the U.S. Open, before finishing T13 at the Travelers Championship, where he played putter roulette as his struggles on the greens reached a tipping point. He then missed the cut at the Irish Open, which he hosts, and last week’s Scottish Open. McIlroy’s turnaround was spurred by Fitzgerald’s pep talk and a decision to trust the swing he’d been practicing on the range. “I sort of felt I was caught in between (swings) on the first six holes,â€� he said. “I found a little swing thought or a little trigger that I think is going to help.â€� McIlroy, No. 75 in the FedExCup, can also draw inspiration from a victory that led to last season’s FedExCup triumph. “I was 4 over through three holes last year in Boston and won that tournament, so I’ve done it before,â€� he said, referring to his victory in last season’s Dell Technologies Championship. He shot a final-round 65 to win at TPC Boston on Labor Day, then won the TOUR Championship later that month to add the FedExCup to his major-laden resume. His hopes for a rally this week began with his first birdie of the day at the par-4 11th. He also birdied three of his final four holes, punctuating his comeback with a 20-foot birdie putt on the last hole. He’s six shots behind co-leaders Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar. McIlroy wasn’t the only big name to shoot 71. FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson, Olympic gold medalist Justin Rose and FedExCup No. 6 Rickie Fowler also were 1 over par. McIlroy sits in 58th place after the first round, one shot inside the cut line. He’s trying to avoid a third missed cut in his past four majors, and missing consecutive major cuts for just the second time in his career (2010 Masters, U.S. Open). He isn’t thinking about the cut line, though. With tomorrow’s difficult afternoon forecast as an aid to his efforts, McIlroy is hoping he can begin his move up the leaderboard at 9:47 a.m. local time Friday. “With the weather we’re expecting tomorrow, I still feel I’m in the golf tournament,â€� he said. “If I can go out and play a good quality round of golf in the morning and try to get in the clubhouse somewhere around even par, under par, I’ll still be around for the weekend.â€�

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