BLAINE, Minnesota. On Tuesday, Scotty Scheffler teeed off on the 14th hole at TPC Twin Cities as Hollis Kavner, executive director of the 3M Open, watched gleefully from a nearby golf cart.
Many others watched from behind the ropes.
With the world No. 1 to appear at the tournament this week, Kavner says tournament ticket sales are already up 25 to 30 percent over last year, and that’s not even counting the tickets they plan to sell later this week or at the gate when the tournament starts, which is where most of their sales come from.
“We’ve already exceeded all our targets,” says Kavner. “So we’re looking at a really, really big week.”
Scheffler’s debut at the 3M Open is considered the biggest achievement in the tournament’s short history. The tournament began in 2019 and has attracted other big names such as Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka, although for most it was before they became big winners.
But Scheffler’s commitment remained surprising.
The 3M Open is being held again after the Open Championship, the last major tournament of the year. Most of the top players had also competed in the Genesis Scottish Open the week before, meaning that in addition to missing out on a well-deserved break at the end of the major season, playing the 3M Open for most meant three starts in a row – and a long flight to Minneapolis after what had already been a long series of flights.
The tournament has officially announced that Scheffler will take the field on May 4th. Kavner said he knew about this about a month earlier.
“We had to hide it and not tell anyone,” he said, “which was hard.”
Kavner, CEO of Pro Links Sports, is deeply rooted in the professional game and has long overseen tournament operations and recruiting at stops such as the Valspar Championship and Wells Fargo Championship. He knows Scheffler’s agent, Blake Smith, and is good friends with Scheffler’s longtime coach, Randy Smith. During last month’s 3M Open media day, he joked, “I think we’ve finally worn out (Scotty).”
“We’ve been talking to him about coming for years,” Kavner said. “This year it worked out to a schedule where he could play on the way back from Europe, so it worked out great.”
This makes sense too. Following the 3M Open, the tour heads to Detroit (Rocket Classic) and North Carolina (Wyndham Championship) before the first of three straight FedEx Cup Playoff tournaments. Scheffler did not want to rest for so long before the next important part of the season. Playing at Detroit would mean a one-off week of travel – players generally like to string starts together – and going to Windham would mean four straight starts.
“It was good planning for me,” Scheffler said at his news conference Wednesday. “We had two weeks in the UK and a three-week break before the playoffs didn’t seem like the most ideal way to structure the schedule. It was a tournament I’d heard good things about.”
Scheffler arrived here on one of the planes provided by tournament organizers 3M, took Monday off – visiting downtown Minneapolis with his family – and played the back nine on Tuesday afternoon. He had his first match with Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell on the front nine at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday. (His internal clock also returns to normal, since on Wednesday he slept before his alarm, unlike Tuesday.)
“The golf course is a decent length, there are some pretty long par-4s and a good amount of water, and so when the rough is like that, I think it’s going to cost more to hit the fairways,” he said. “When you’re in the game, you’re going to get some scoring putts on certain holes. And the greens are pretty big, so if you’re on the fairway, it’s a lot easier. Once you start hitting it in the rough, it can be tough.”
Kavner also noted that Scheffler was helped by the family atmosphere and hospitality aimed at players and caddies. (Scheffler also mentioned this during his press conference on Wednesday.) Kavner hopes other players will follow in Scheffler’s footsteps and compete in this tournament in the future, especially if Scheffler has good news to report.
However, the tournament’s future, or at least its status in the new PGA Tour hierarchy, is in question. The tournament has a contract with the Tour until 2030, although the Tour’s new two-track system will take effect in 2028. It is unclear where the 3M Open will be held and the result will have a major impact on the field.
But for now, the 3M Open is celebrating its biggest draw in history. And Scheffler signed every autograph that awaited him after Tuesday’s tour.
“People seem to be very grateful that we are here, which is surprising for a golf tournament,” Scheffler said. “So far it’s been simple and easy, the people have been really nice, the fans have been really good. There was a decent amount of people out for the practice round yesterday. So I’m excited to start the week, excited to get out in front of the fans this week and play some golf and see what the tournament environment is like.”
You can contact the author at joshua.berhow@golf.com.