BLAINE, Minn. — Scott PiercyTo share the 3M Open lead, shot a 6-under 65 Sungjae ImAfter a windy first round on Thursday.
Tony FinauTwo strokes back, with three nearly missed birdie putts on his last four holes. Brice Garnett, Doug Ghim, Emiliano Grillo Tom Hoge.
On a sunny, 86-degree day at TPC Twin Cities, suburban Minneapolis, the courses propensity for low scores held up once more.
Piercy played in the second group off the first tee. He made 151 feet of putts. He birdied four out of five holes on his back nine.
Piercy, a 43-year-old, won the 3M Open 2019 by two strokes. This was two strokes more than the first round. Piercy is one of many on the fringe players this year looking for a late season lift in the FedEx Cup. Piercy arrived at Minnesota in 138th position. He was cut for the playoffs at the 125 level and there were two events that remained to qualify. Piercy has not advanced to the weekend in four of his six previous starts.
Piercy has won four career tours since 2009. Piercy made some unusually drastic decisions, including switching his caddie, swing coach, driver and putter last week.
Piercy said, Every shot is important, and its now time to buckle down. Not that we don’t try to buckle down every time, but there’s extra buckling down. This is a great way to begin.
I couldn’t be happier with todays results from the putter. It made me smile and I don’t smile often enough. Sometimes, you have to make a change in order to improve.
Im, who finished 19th in FedEx Cup standings and 24th overall, birdied four his last six holes. South Korean 24-year old Im was eighth at the Masters this season, but tied for 81st last Week at the British Open.
Finau, who was the only member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team last year and the 17th-ranked player worldwide, has two top five finishes this summer.
He missed a birdie putt of 3 feet on 15, and he missed a birdie putt of 4 feet on 16. On the 18th, he missed a 3-foot birdie putt on 15 and left a 4-footer for birdie just short on 16. He would have been tied for the lead if he had made two of those three.
Finau stated, There was enough wind there to affect every shot, hitting and putting. But I stabilized the ship pretty well. I bogeyed on the first hole. This is not the start you want when its playing difficult. However, I was able putt some putts in middle of front nine and started to get going in middle of round.
Hoge, who grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, about a 3 1/2-hour drive northwest, won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. In his six previous starts, he has missed the cut in all six.
I just feel at home in the area. Hoge said that it helps to have experienced a lot of wind growing up, just in order to understand how it will affect some of our shots out there.
The top-ranked player in the field Hideki Yamayama, withdrew. After shooting a 77 to match his worst round, his Saturday at April 9 Masters, he said he was sore on his wrist.
The FedEx Cup race was in eighth place and Matsuyama was the worlds No. Matsuyama, a 14-year-old player, hit the water three times on the difficult 18th hole. He also took a quadruple bogey 9. Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion and a fourth-place finisher in the U.S. Open this year, tied for seventh at 2019s 3M Open.
Mardy Fisch, a former tennis star, was tied for the last place at 81. Jeff Overton is the best underdog story among all the sponsor exemptions. This is after he recovered from a serious spine infection.
Overton has more than $12,000,000 in career earnings. He was also a member of the 2010 U.S. Ryder Cup team. Overton shot a score of 77.
It was very emotional. Overton stated that she was definitely teetering out there a few times. Nothing crazy but its a win.
