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The post-major championship hangover is wearing off, and golf is being played at TPC Twin Cities as the 3M Open is underway. The afternoon looked like an Open Championship with how hard the wind was blowing, but the scoring on Thursday was not major-like. It was, as it was expected to be, low and bountiful.
Lee Hodges (-8) leads after shooting a magnificent 63 in a first round suspended . He has horses all around him, though, including multi-time PGA Tour winners, thriving young players ready to break out and a handful of veterans looking for their first win in a while.
Add it all up, and there are 43 golfers within five of Hodges’ lead. There is, as they say, a long way to go. Let’s look at what went down on Thursday, though, and what to expect from a surprisingly nice field in Minnesota.
Contents
The leader
1. Lee Hodges (-8)
Hodges got a slight break in that the afternoon was the much tougher wave because of increased wind, but he took advantage of it. Hodges finished in the top 10 on the day off the tee, in approach play and with his putter.
The clean-card 63 built him a narrow lead on a host of players, but Hodges, who has not finished inside the top 10 at a tournament since April but has played some decent golf recently with a top 12 at the Scottish Open, is not concerned about where he is after the first round.
“I mean, it’s cool, but like you said, if I don’t do it the next three days, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “Just a great day today, I’ll take it for what it is and we’ll get out there tomorrow and try to do it again
Other contenders
T2. Hideki Matsuyama, Brandt Snedeker, Tyler Duncan, Kevin Streelman (-7)
T6. Justin Suh, Nick Hardy, Emiliano Grillo (-6)
T9. Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Adam Svensson (-5)
The big names here are obviously Matsuyama, Horschel and Finau. While Matsuyama (who gained 7.2 strokes from tee to green) was one of my picks this week, it’s Finau…
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Source : cbssports
