BLAINE, Minn. — Lee Hodges is taking care of business.
After 36 holes in the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities, Hodges leads alone at 15-under 127, holding a four-shot lead over Tyler Duncan and earning himself the final tee time come Saturday. Hodges had the second-best round of his career Thursday with a 63, and he followed that up by shooting 7-under 64 on Friday to increase his lead. He doesn’t have a bogey through two rounds.
He had seven birdies in the second round, and he was just able to finish before the second round was suspended due to darkness. Hodges nearly made an eagle putt on the 18th after the horn sounded, but he tapped in for birdie to increase his lead.
All of the leaders were in the clubhouse when play concluded.
Hodges, in his second season on Tour, hasn’t won and hasn’t even had a runner-up finish. He’ll look to change that this weekend.
Meanwhile, Duncan posted a bogey-free 4-under 67 to move into solo second after the second round. He has not made a bogey through 36 holes. Sitting at 113th in the FedEx Cup standings coming into the week, he needed a big performance and is doing just that.
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However, there’s a group of four at 10 under that are all PGA Tour winners on the heels of the two in front, including the defending champion.
Here are some takeaways from the second round of the 3M Open.
A new way to see the swing
Last week, Kevin Streelman spent time in Chicago with one of his friends. Inside that friend’s garage is 3D technology that includes a body suit, so Streelman put it on.
What he found out has assisted his game tremendously.
“I had noticed my hips and my shoulders were pretty square to my target, but my rib cage was actually like 20 degrees open in — like it’s something you couldn’t see with 2D in video,” Streelman said. “All I’m feeling is like that with my kind of center just clicking a bit close, but now I’m able to feel that rotation and on both sides of the ball. It just kind of gives it a little stability versus kind of stopping and me throwing, which is always kind of my problem. Just seeing that and like a cool little 3D avatar and cleaning that up so far has been a pretty drastic change for me.”
The change has paid off, as Streelman shot a bogey-free 3-under 68 on Friday and sits at 10 under and tied for third with J.T. Poston, Tony Finau and Brandt Snedeker. After 36 holes this week, Streelman has only one bogey and is finding some consistency after recording only one top-10 finish this year.
“It wasn’t really an expectation type of week, it just was I’m kind of enjoying the feelings I have with my golf swing right now,” Streelman said. “Nice to have some like scientific data, empirical data, proof of what I’m kind of I’ve been doing wrong. So all of a sudden believe in that and oh, yeah, there we go. Once we get that feeling that we know is right, like it’s kind of off to the races sometimes.
“Hopefully it continues. Going to need to continue, there’s obviously some incredibly strong golfers right behind me. Yeah, it’s going to be fun and we’ll keep attacking. The weather looks great this weekend, so it will be nice.”
Postman wanting to deliver
Poston has been finding his form recently, so it’s no surprise to see him in the hunt at 10 under.
He tied for sixth at the John Deere Classic, a tournament he won last year, and followed that up with a T-6 at the Genesis Scottish Open. At the British Open, he finished T-41.
After consecutive 66s in the Twin Cities, he’s in position to clinch his third PGA Tour victory.
“I think (the course) fits my eye,” Poston said. “I think you’ve got to drive it well. The greens are really good. They’re bentgrass, what I grew up on, so very comfortable on these types of greens. I don’t know, something about them, I just feel like I have a pretty good feel and can read them really well, and so I’ve always putted pretty well.”
Poston was well outside the playoff picture about a month ago, but with two events remaining in the regular season, he has moved to 60th. That gets him a spot at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, but only the top 50 get into the BMW Championship.
“Just kind of been riding a nice wave of momentum of good golf,” he said. “Like I said, my game feels like it’s in a good spot, so I’m just trying to go play well and just see where it stacks up when the playoffs get here.”
With a win or even another strong finish this week, Poston can take his mind off making the BMW field and look at getting back to East Lake.
Mother Nature makes her mark
For the second straight day, weather affected the 3M Open.
Thursday’s first round was suspended because of weather, forcing it to be completed early Friday, though the second round wasn’t delayed.
Come Friday afternoon, another suspension of play came at 5:23 p.m. ET when more storms moved through the area.
Play resumed at 7:20 p.m. ET, a delay of just under two hours, but it was enough to prevent the second round from finishing up Friday. The horn sounded again due to darkness at 9:53 p.m. ET.
Let's talk Ryder Cup
With the Ryder Cup creeping ever closer, there has been no shortage of discussion on the topic regarding who’s going to make the team on the United States side.
But what about the Europeans? Sure, stalwarts like Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm will be on the team, as will Viktor Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood.
What about Ludvig Aberg? Yeah, the guy who was playing college golf two months ago.
Aberg shot 7-under 64, tying for the second-lowest round of the day Friday, moving nearly 100 spots up the leaderboard after a 1-over 72 start in the first round. He became the first player in Tour history to earn his card straight out of college through PGA Tour University, and he has had a strong summer.
He tied for fourth at the John Deere Classic and has missed only one cut in five professional starts, coming at the Genesis Scottish Open. He has earned 199 FedEx Cup points in his five events since turning pro, and he didn’t get any for a T-24 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which he played as an amateur.
He’s also 23, having a bit more playing experience than some of the game’s other young stars, even if he’s new to the professional game.
That brings the question: could he be a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup?
Luke Donald has plenty of choices to make, similar to U.S. captain Zach Johnson. There are plenty of players with more professional experience than Aberg, but the European team is going to have plenty of players getting their first Ryder Cup experience in Rome. So why not give Aberg a shot?
Although his chance to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs is small, a strong finish at the 3M Open and another performance next week at the Wyndham Championship could give Donald something to think about.
Aberg’s career is just getting started, and if he’s able to convince Donald to pick him with his play, an early appearance could propel him to even higher heights.
Delay bolsters defending champ
Nearly a month ago, Finau defended his title at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and it didn’t go well. He missed the cut.
Last week, he also missed the weekend at the British Open. This week, he’s in contention again in Minnesota.
Finau, like Poston, carded his second straight 5-under 66 and is in the group tied for third.
He had three birdies in his six holes after the delay, including a three-footer he knocked in after the two-hour break. He then birdied Nos. 14 and 16 and narrowly missed birdies on Nos. 15, 17 and 18.
“I knew the golf course was going to yield some birdies if I just stayed patient, so that’s — I just stayed patient,” Finau said. “And I was able to make a nice little run there through the middle of the front nine, the middle of the back nine. Yeah, I made some nice birdies after the — after the delay, you never know. You go back out there, you don’t know exactly how the conditions are going to be and you don’t know how much slower the greens are going to be with the moisture. So it was nice to make a few birdies even after the delay.”
Finau spent much of the warm-up session working with his coach, Boyd Summerhays. He said it was small, technical stuff he felt during the early part of his second round. Whatever they worked on, it paid off.
“That’s the thing when you do have a little break and you have your coach with you, you’re able to run through it a little bit with him and just fine tune some things,” Finau said.
And now he’s in position to defend going into the weekend.
