The weekend is here in Minnesota and we have a jam packed leaderboard heading into the weekend. We saw the wind pick up in the afternoon which really kept the scoring benign and didn't allow anyone to run away to start the event.
Over the weekend, the wind is expected to be up again in the afternoon. This really makes the entire field live heading into the final two rounds. We may very well see a golfer or two post a round in the low 60's early in the afternoon and be in one of the final few groups on Sunday.
Below, we will take a look both the leaderboard and the odds board to find some golfers who can make a weekend charge at The 3M Open.
| Taylor Pendrith -12 | (+240) |
| Matt Nesmith -10 | (+1200) |
| Andrew Putnam -9 | (+1200) |
| Jacob Bridgeman -8 | (+4000) |
| Doug Ghim -8 | (+1400) |
| Stewart Cink -8 | (+7500) |
| Lanto Griffin -8 | (+3500) |
| Jhonny Vegas -8 | (+1600) |
Austin Smotherman Top 20 +800
I spoke about Smotherman early in the week to be a potential low priced golfer to make some noise. He lost his PGA Tour Card and has been very solid in the few starts he has gotten. This is now his fifth made cut in a row on The PGA Tour and is really making the most of his starts and he doing it again this week.
Smotherman is playing very well tee-to-green but leaving a lot to be desired on the putting greens. However, being inside the top 15 in SG: Approach shows that he can pop in an instant. Look for Smotherman to heat up over the weekend.
Chris Gotterup Top 20 +350
Gotterup is safely through the cut with two rounds of 69. What Chris is doing in the short game areas of the game are very motivating. He's currently losing strokes off-the-tee which is an area he excels in. The cream always rises to the top over four rounds which is what Gotterup should do with the driver. Once he starts striping it, he'll have more chances to tap into the solid short game he has got going this week.
Look for this PGA Tour Winner to go out early on Saturday and post a solid round to work his way up the leaderboard come Sunday.
Sam Stevens Top 20 +450
Stevens made the cut via rounds of 75 and 65. It's not very often we see a ten stroke difference in score in two days on The PGA Tour. Stevens is playing solid golf at the moment, he played nicely in his last start at The Barracuda and finished T10 in this event last year.
Stevens brings the driver-putter build to the table which is a key to success around TPC Twin Cities. Thus far, the driver and putter have both been average but he did find something on the putting greens today. Stevens gained 3.1 strokes on the greens in round two which was good for third in the field. I would not be shocked if he keeps that momentum up and posts a nice round either Saturday or Sunday.
