There could be a new PGA Tour event in Minnesota in the 2019-20 season, and it could be coming from PGA Tour Champions.
Organizers of the 3M Championship have applied to the PGA Tour for consideration to join the schedule, according to the Pioneer Press and a source.
“We feel very comfortable that the Tour is working on our behalf,” tournament organizer Hollis Cavner said to the paper. “I’ve talked to the commissioner about that, and he’s definitely working in our favor. We’re just waiting. We can’t push them because they’re waiting for other people to make decisions. But they’ve stated that they want Minneapolis on the Tour.”
The tournament is annually played at TPC Twin Cities, and, in his one of his final visits to the event, original architect Arnold Palmer offered plans for how to change the Blaine, Minn., course to make it an appropriate length for the PGA Tour's best.
The question is where a PGA Tour event in Minnesota would fit on the schedule. Of course, golf season in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is notoriously short but spirited. That would mean the summer would really be the only window for such a tournament, and that would mean displacing or moving another event already in a jam-packed part of the calendar. With many tournaments like The Greenbrier Classic and the Quicken Loans National committed at least into the next decade, it would tough to find a full-field spot unless one of those events would commit to moving into the fall portion of the wraparound schedule. Perhaps a Minnesota event could spring up in replacement of an alternate-field event against a major championship, including the PGA Championship, which doesn't currently have an alternate field event.
The 3M Championship is a popular event on PGA Tour Champions, with legends showing up for a unique competition and drawing sizable crowds. For the PGA Tour, TPC Twin Cities would be boosted to nearly 7,700 yards in length, and that could attract big names to compete in a market that is golf crazy, as evidenced by the spirited turnout for the 2016 Ryder Cup matches at Hazeltine National in Chaska.
