3M Open Golf Betting Tips 2022

It’s an ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ week after the nostalgia-filled brilliance of the 150th Open and it comes as no surprise that only two of the world’s top 20, Hideki Matsuyama and Tony Finau, are teeing it up at the 3M Open in Minnesota.

The DP World Tour would have put the flags out for even one star name at the Cazoo Classic in Southport where the only players in the world’s top hundred are Robert MacIntyre and Oliver Bekker. And they are 98th and 99th.

I wouldn’t cross the road to watch either tournament but there’s worse to come as the Saudi-backed LIV Golf invasion gets up a head of steam and announces further ‘name’ defectors ahead of next week’s third instalment in New Jersey.

Ironically 3M second favourite Matsuyama is rumoured to be one who might be tempted but all will shortly be revealed. Meanwhile, the depleted PGA Tour rolls on to the Twin Cities course in Blaine, hosting this $7.5m tournament for the third time. The appropriately named Cameron Champ was champion last year but, having missed his last five cuts, is hard to tip even though there is a paucity of viable alternatives.

Finau is preferred to Matsuyama as he has course form and come back strong from a lengthy spell in the doldrums. Since his US Open fourth, the Japanese star has missed the cut at the Scottish and made no impression at St Andrews. I just wonder whether his mind is totally on the job.

A fast-finishing 12th at St Andrews thanks to a closing 66 sends Finau off to Twin Cities in a positive mindset following a second place in Canada and 13th at the Travelers. He knows the 7431-yard par 71 Palmer-Lehman layout well having finished fifth in the first edition two years ago and is the man to beat.

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The idea back in 2000 when Twin Cities launched was to make it a regular Champions Tour stop, which it was from 2001 to 2018 until it graduated to main-tour status, only for the first scheduled 3M Open to fall foul of Covid.

Don’t take too much notice of Champ being the longest driver on tour at 320 yards – it was the flat stick that turned out to be his biggest weapon last year. Bearing in mind the lack of success in Champ’s run-up to this title defence, a safer bet on current form is JT Poston who achieved quite a feat in leading from pillar to post at the John Deere Classic with dead-eye driving and a putting stroke to die for. The week before he’d been an unlucky runner-up at the Travelers.

Poston’s missed cut in Scotland can be overlooked as he was punching way above his weight there. Back at his level JT (James Tyree if you’re interested) is going to be a tough nut to crack.

The same can be said about Cameron Davis who, having seen what compatriot Cam Smith achieved at the home of golf, will feed off the “other” Cam’s triumph. Davis had a good warm-up with a top-six finish at the Barracuda on Sunday and will be rarin’ to show Smithy he’s not the only Aussie who knows how to win. He has course credentials too, 12th at Twin Cities two years ago.

Mark Hubbard followed his third place at the JDC with another sterling effort last week and has to be on the short list, as does Maverick McNealy, a one-time world No.1 amateur still awaiting his first main-tour victory. He’s been around for almost eight years and this could be his time.

Barracuda winner Chez Reavie has to be considered but two in a row is difficult while other old stagers like Ryan Palmer, Stewart Cink, Jason Day and Rickie Fowler will fancy their chances in this grade.

Yet I’m picking the younger, hungrier duo of Sahith Theegala and Davis Riley as more likely dangers to Finau. Theegala quickly picked himself up after throwing it away at the Travelers with solid efforts at the JDC and the Open and what impresses most is their consistency. Both have made their last eight cuts with Riley particularly reliable with a playoff second at the Valspar and more recently fourth at Colonial and 13th at the PGA Championship.

And for a hunch bet why not try the pride of Darlington, Callum Tarren, who has been making ripples with top-six finishes in Puerto Rico and the JDC. Sunday’s 22nd was another good effort and I’d sooner bet him than guys like Cameron Tringale and Emiliano Grillo who either don’t know how to win or have forgotten how to.

Also punt-worthy is Canadian star Adam Hadwin, playing better golf now than when sixth last year and not far pulling off a shock when seventh at the US Open.
It will be survival of the fittest as, guess what, it’s going to be hot (30C), sticky and humid.