Easiest major holes in past 10 years: Where does Carnoustie’s 14th rank?

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Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson headline the field as Minnesota celebrates its first regular PGA TOUR event in a half-century, enjoying elevated status for what previously was one of the most popular stops on the PGA TOUR Champions. Jason Day and Patrick Reed also fill out the roster that features 11 of the top 30 men in the latest FedExCup standings for the inaugural, as the TPC Twin Cities unveils a bolder layout in anticipation of testing some of the TOUR’s top talent. FIELD NOTES: Kenny Perry, who won last year’s final Champions edition, is back to make a title defense of sorts while Minnesota native Tom Lehman also tees up as a holdover from the event’s previous chapter. … Fellow Minnesotan Tim Herron also was given a spot via sponsor exemption. … Koepka, Mickelson, Reed and Jimmy Walker give the event four members of the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup winners at nearby Hazeltine. … Robert Garrigus makes his first PGA TOUR start since sitting out three months on suspension. He tuned up with a pair of Korn Ferry Tour starts, grabbing the first-day lead in Utah after a 64. … Viktor Hovland makes his third straight start as a pro since rewriting the U.S. Open’s scoring record for an amateur and finishing T54 in his pro debut at the Travelers Championship. Former Oklahoma State teammate Matthew Wolff likewise is in the field after making his pro debut at the Travelers Championship as well. … Chase Koepka, younger brother of Brooks, also will tee it up on a sponsor invite. He’s spent 2019 on Europe’s Challenge Tour. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: After embracing a PGA TOUR Champions event, two major championships and the Ryder Cup in the past 17 years, Minnesota finally has a PGA TOUR event that will put down roots. The 3M Open marks the TOUR’s first regular stop in the state since the Minnesota Golf Classic played its last edition in 1969. Raymond Floyd, Mike Souchak and Frank Beard were among those winners. … Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship and was second in the year’s other two majors, hopes to right the ship in a regular event. His past two non-majors have seen him finish outside the top 40. … A top-7 performance also would lift Koepka past Matt Kuchar into the FedExCup points lead. … The 3M Open is the second event in as many years to receive a PGA TOUR promotion from another circuit. Last year, the Corales Puntacana Championship made the jump from the Korn Ferry Tour. COURSE: TPC Twin Cities, 7,468 yards, par 71. Recently upgraded in anticipation of the PGA TOUR’s arrival, the longtime Champions venue north of Minneapolis first opened in 2000 and was widely considered one of that circuit’s top layouts. The Arnold Palmer design, with Tom Lehman as a consultant, transformed a former sod farm into a rolling landscape featuring 27 bodies of water, restoring several natural wetlands while framing holes with stands of mature oak and spruce trees. The 3M Championship came to TPC Twin Cities in 2001, enjoying an 18-year run on site. In each of the past seven years, TPC Twin Cities ranked first or second in birdies among 54-hole Champions stops. 54-HOLE RECORD (Champions): 191, David Frost (2010). 18-HOLE RECORD (Champions): 60, Paul Goydos (2nd round, 2017), Kenny Perry (2nd round, 2018). LAST YEAR: Perry closed the event’s PGA TOUR Champions chapter with his third victory in Minnesota, using a second-round 60 to open a five-shot lead before cruising to a three-shot triumph. A 3-under-par 69 was all Perry needed to finish things off, keeping Wes Short Jr.’s closing 63 at arm’s length. Perry also won at TPC Twin Cities in 2014 and ’15, matching Hale Irwin’s standard of three wins in the Champions event. It also was the seventh time in eight appearances that Perry had finished among the top seven at TPC Twin Cities. “It’s going to be so long next year, I probably won’t even recognize it when I come back,â€� he quipped. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (featured groups). Saturday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 12:00 to 22:30 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 13:30 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).  

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NOTE: For the first three events of the FedExCup Playoffs, Rob focuses only on golfers outside the bubble to advance. In this last installment, all five below enter the BMW Championship outside the top 30 in FedExCup points. Charl Schwartzel … The South African is the only qualifier on this page with experience at Conway Farms. He shared eighth place in 2013. For the second consecutive season, he begins the third leg of the Playoffs slotted 43rd in the FedExCup standings. Last year, after opening T53-70th, a five-way share of fourth place at Crooked Stick yielded a rise to 30th in points and into the TOUR Championship. This time around, he strolls in with better form after a T29 and a T25 in the first two legs, respectively. Mackenzie Hughes … At 31st in FedExCup points, he’s the easiest to pluck from the 40 outside the top 70, but to lean on that as the reason would be ignoring why he’s 31st. As I laid out in a recent edition of the Rookie Ranking, the Canadian cannot be ruled out to scoop up the once-in-a-lifetime honor, but he’s probably going to need to advance to the TOUR Championship given the depth of his class. A T13 at the Dell Technologies Championship served a reminder to his competition as it matched his third-best result of the season and best since mid-February. Through two legs of the Playoffs, he’s ninth in strokes gained: putting. Xander Schauffele … Not that Hughes needed any additional motivation to secure a tee time at East Lake, but his fellow rookie, Schauffele, is one notch back at 32nd in the FedExCup standings. The 23-year-old from California could be part of a photo finish for the Rookie of the Year award. It would cap a flourish that was sparked in earnest by a T5 at the U.S. Open and has included four top 20s since, including a breakthrough win at The Greenbrier Classic. He leads the FedExCup Playoffs in par-5 scoring average. Hudson Swafford … It’s reasonable to assume that he experienced an emotional letdown after breaking through for his first PGA TOUR title at the CareerBuilder Challenge in January. After all, expectations were high following his phenomenal career at the University of Georgia. He connected top 10s two months post-victory, and then went virtually silent until hanging up a T10 in his debut at Firestone in August. A T13 at TPC Boston two weeks ago lifted him to 33rd in the FedExCup standings and to without shouting distance of his debut at East Lake. It’d make for a proper way to celebrate his 30th birthday (on Sept. 9). Ranks seventh in the Playoffs in strokes gained: tee-to-green, sixth in proximity and T11 in bogey avoidance. Rafa Cabrera Bello … Populated this space two weeks ago, and then finished T18 at the Dell Technologies Championship to climb 20 spots to 60th for the BMW Championship. The Spaniard is seeking to become just the fourth in Playoffs history to play his way into the TOUR Championship after starting both the second and third legs outside the bubble. Only Marc Leishman (2009), Geoff Ogilvy (2011) and Morgan Hoffmann (2014) have previously scaled the same ladder. (Hoffmann is the only golfer of the three to begin the Playoffs outside the top 100.) RCB ranks 13th in the Playoffs in strokes gained: putting and 12th in scrambling, so he’s connecting with his bread and butter.

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