After the drama of last week’s final Major of the year, the 150th Open Championship, the 3M Open gets under way at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minneapolis.
The tournament is a relatively new addition to the PGA Tour schedule. Until 2018, the same course held the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship. That all changed in 2019, with the first 3M Open seeing Matthew Wolff hold off challenges from Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau to win by a shot and take the $1.152m first prize.
Neither Wolff nor DeChambeau will be playing this year thanks to their involvement in the LIV Golf Invitational Series, while Morikawa sits it out this week following the 2020 Open Champion’s disappointing missed cut at last week’s event at St Andrews.
Nevertheless, two former 3M Open champions will appear this week – 2020 winner Michael Thompson and Cameron Champ, who claimed victory by two shots last year, edging out Jhonattan Vegas and two other players who have since signed up for the Saudi-backed Series, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel. Champ has been in poor form of late, with missed cuts in his last five appearances. He’ll be hoping this week’s tournament offers the perfect opportunity to get back on track.
A combination of factors, including the tournament’s proximity to The Open and absentees due to the LIV Golf Invitational Series means there are few big names in this week’s field. Indeed, only two of the current world top 20, World No.14 Hideki Matsuyama and World No.17 Tony Finau, will be teeing it up in Minnesota.
Of course, that offers an opportunity for some of the Tour’s lesser lights to claim a PGA Tour victory and a share of a record purse of $7.5m, up from last year’s $6.6m. While that is still one of the smaller purses on the PGA Tour this year, it offers an eye-catching $1.35m for the winner.
Below is the prize breakdown and field for this week’s event.
3M Open 2022 Prize Money Breakdown
| Position | Prize Money |
|---|---|
| 1st | $1,350,000 |
| 2nd | $817,500 |
| 3rd | $517,500 |
| 4th | $367,500 |
| 5th | $307,500 |
| 6th | $271,875 |
| 7th | $253,125 |
| 8th | $234,375 |
| 9th | $219,375 |
| 10th | $204,375 |
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