PGA Tour Betting Picks: Tony Finau Tops 3M Open Odds Board

It’s a big week in Minnesota’s Twin Cities as the NFL’s Vikings open their full training camp Tuesday and the state’s lone PGA Tour event, the 3M Open, tees off Thursday from the suburb of Eagan. Tony Finau is favoured on the golf odds.

The 3M Open is obviously in a very tough spot on the schedule not just following the British Open but ahead of the Paris Olympics, so just five of the world’s Top 30 are set to play. On Monday, three sponsor exemptions were announced: amateur Santiago de la Fuente as well as Russell Knox and Dylan Frittelli.

The Open Championship was won by Xander Schauffele on Sunday at Royal Troon in Scotland. He’s not playing this week and few big names are. This event only has been around since 2019 as it supplanted a long-running Champions Tour event that ran from 1993-2018. The 3M Open has been won solely by Americans. The tournament is second-to-last on Tour before the FedEx Cup playoffs.

TPC Twin Cities, a par 71 at approximately 7,430 yards and designed by the late Arnold Palmer and his company, continues as host. Former world No. 1 and Minnesota native Tom Lehman was the player consultant for the layout. One of the course’s signature holes, the par-4 17th, is named “Tom’s Thumb’” after Lehman.

The defending champion is relative unknown Lee Hodges, but he lapped the field in 2023 by finishing at a tournament-record 24-under 260 and seven shots up on runners-up Martin Laird, JT Poston and Kevin Streelman. While we certainly didn’t predict Hodges to win last year, we simply took an American at -200 and that cashed again in this tournament.

Hodges went wire-to-wire (first such winner in this event) for his first PGA Tour victory in his 65th career start. He shot a 63 on Thursday, a 64 on Friday and a 66 on Saturday to take a commanding lead into the final round. Hodges hasn’t won since and is +6000 to repeat, which no one has done here. In 22 events this year, Hodges doesn’t have a single Top 10 with missed eight cuts.

Ben Warian, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, also received a sponsor exemption to play in his first PGA Tour event. He was second-team All-Big Ten this past season. Since graduating, Warian has collected a win at the Sunnehanna Amateur Championship and he also advanced to the semifinals of the North and South Amateur Championship earlier this summer. The top two amateurs at the U.S. Open in June — Neal Shipley and Luke Clanton — also are in the field.

3M Open Golf Odds

American Tony Finau is the +1100 favourite – he was the +1300 favourite entering the 2023 event as Finau won here in 2022 at 17-under 267. He finished seventh last year and comes off a missed cut at the British Open. Finau had three straight Top 10s on the PGA Tour prior to that but hasn’t won in 2024.

Sam Burns (+1800), Akshay Bhatia (+2200) and Sahith Theegala (+2200) round out the favourites. None have won here. Burns’ best result in the tournament was ninth in 2019. Bhatia makes his 3M Open debut off a missed cut at the British. Theegala also missed the cut in Scotland and hasn’t made the cut here in three previous tries.

Both Billy Horschel (+3000) and Justin Rose (+5000), who finished tied for second at The Open Championship, are teeing it up again this week. Horschel finished T13 in 2023 in his 3M Open debut, while Rose is making his first trip here.

Nick Dunlap, just 20 years old, won the opposite-field Barracuda Championship on Sunday and is +4000. He became the first golfer in PGA Tour history win as both an amateur and a pro in the same season. Keegan Bradley (+3500), recently announced as Team USA captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup, is returning to the 3M Open for the first time since 2021.

No Canadian has won here. Mackenzie Hughes was the top finisher last year at T30, while Adam Svensson was T37. Adam Hadwin, Taylor Pendrith and David Hearn missed the cut even though none were over par after two rounds. It’s a pretty easy course. Pendrith, off a fifth-place finish Sunday at the Barracuda Championship, is +3500 this week with Hadwin +4500, Mackenzie Hughes +5000, Adam Svensson +6600, Ben Silverman +8000 and Roger Sloan +30000.

3M Open Golf Picks and Predictions

No price yet simply for an American to win again but that’s what we would recommend with our individual play on JT Poston at +3000. He has improved each of the past three years at this event with that T2 last year.