How Minnesota's 3M Open got to World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler

BLAINE, Minn. – As Scottie Scheffler teed off Tuesday from the 14th hole at TPC Twin Cities, Hollis Cavner, executive director of the 3M Open, watched with glee from a nearby golf cart.

Many others were watching wirelessly.

As the World No. 1 is on the field this week, Cavner says tournament ticket sales are already up 25-30 percent over last year, and that doesn't even include tickets they expect to sell later this week or at the gates when the tournament starts, which is where most of their sales come from.

“We've already exceeded all our numbers,” Cavner said. So we are expecting a really big week.

Scheffler's 3M Open debut goes down as the biggest win in the event's short history. The tournament started in 2019 and attracted some big names like Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka, although for many it was before they became big winners.

But Scheffler's commitment was still remarkable.

The 3M Open also falls after the Open Championship, the last major of the year. Most of the top players also competed in the Genesis Scottish Open last week, which means that without taking a well-deserved break at the end of the big season, playing the 3M Open, for the most part, means three straight starts – and a long flight to Minneapolis after what is already a long series of flights.

The league officially announced that Scheffler had committed to the field on May 4. Cavner said he knew about a month earlier.

“We had to hide it and not tell anyone,” he said, “which was difficult.”

Cavner, CEO of Pro Links Sports, specializes in the pro game and has long overseen tournament production — and recruiting — at stops like the Valspar Championship and the Wells Fargo Championship. He knows Scheffler's agent, Blake Smith, well, and is good friends with Scheffler's longtime trainer, Randy Smith. At the 3M Open media day last month he joked, “I think we're finally dressed [Scottie] down.”

“We've been talking to him about coming for years,” Cavner said. “This year it worked with the program where he could play when he came back from Europe, so it worked very well.”

It makes sense too. After the 3M Open, the Tour heads to Detroit (Rocket Classic) and North Carolina (Wyndham Championship) before the first of three straight FedEx Cup Playoffs. Scheffler didn't want that much time off before the next big episode of the season. Playing Detroit will mean one week of travel — players who tend to string together starts together — and going into Wyndham will mean four straight starts.

“For me, it was good planning,” Scheffler said at Wednesday's press conference. “We had two weeks in the UK, and three weeks before the playoffs didn't seem like a good way to plan my schedule. This was a tournament I heard a lot of good things about.”

Scheffler got here on one of the planes provided by the 3M tournament organizers, left on Monday – visited downtown Minneapolis with his family – played nine on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday he had a 6:40 a.m. session with Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell in the front nine. (His internal clock is back to normal, too, since he slept through his alarm on Wednesday, unlike Tuesday.)

“The golf course has the right length, there are very long par-4s and a good amount of water, so if the conditions are that bad, there will be a fair amount I think to hit the fairways,” he said. “When you're playing, you're going to get some respectable clubs on some holes. And the greens are big, so if you're on the fairway, things will be a lot easier for you. Once you start hitting, it can be difficult.”

Cavner also credited the family-friendly atmosphere and hospitality focused on players and caddies for helping to get Scheffler here. (Scheffler also addressed it during his press conference Wednesday.) Cavner hopes other players follow in Scheffler's footsteps and play the event in the future, especially if Scheffler has something positive to report.

That said, the tournament's future, or at least its status within the PGA Tour's new division, remains in question. The tournament has a contract with the Tour until 2030, although the Tour's new two-track schedule begins in 2028. It's unclear where the 3M Open will end up, and the outcome will have a big impact on the field.

But for now, the 3M Open is celebrating its biggest draw in history. And Scheffler signed every autograph waiting for him after his Tuesday round.

“People seem very grateful that we're here, which is surprising for a golf tournament,” Scheffler said. “Everything so far has been easy and simple and the people have been really nice, the fans have been really nice. There were a lot of people who came out yesterday to practice. So I'm really happy to start the week, I'm really excited to go out in front of the fans this week and play golf and see how the tournament is going to be.”