Looking Back At The 3M Championship

There are so many special moments to look back on and best of all, there are so many more moments just around the corner as we look to the future. The promise of that future would not have been possible without the outstanding work of the 3M Championship team and the passionate support of the Minnesota golfing community.

This year marks the 26^th anniversary of the long running Burnet Senior Classic – Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic – 3M Championship event. In 2019 the PGA Tour will introduce the 3M Open and bring the best golfers in the world to the Land of 10,000 Lakes at the prestigious TPC Twin Cities in Blaine. Before we get too ahead of ourselves looking at next year, the time is right to look back and soak in the colorful history of the PGA TOUR Champions event that entertained Minnesota golf spectators and generated millions of dollars for local charities. That is what they call a win-win.

The Burnet Senior Classic had its start in 1993 at Bunker Hills Golf Club, and by all accounts was a resounding success. Even to this day the winner of that first event Chi Chi Rodriguez is revered as a spokesperson for the event and has visited many times over the years as an ambassador. As it turns out, it was Chi Chi’s last win on the then Senior Tour. He was inducted into the Golf World Hall of Fame a year before winning that last Burnet Classic capping a career with 37 professional wins. He has made both Minnesota and especially the Puerto Rican golfing nation proud.

Bunker Hills continued to host the Burnett event for 8 more years (the last three as the Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic), at which time the event changed sponsors and relocated to the newly minted TPC course in Blaine one year after its opening in 2001. Hal Irwin won in 1997 and 1999 becoming the only repeat winner in those first 8 years. He also won in 2002 after the event had moved to TPC becoming the only 3-time winner in the (to now) 25 year history. Thus the 3M Championship was born.

When the tournament transferred from Bunker Hills to TPC in 2001 and became the 3M Championship, it also introduced a popular event within the event called the Greats of Golf Challenge. This is an exhibition scramble held on the Saturday of tournament weekend. The challenge invites some of the biggest names in the game who are no longer competing on the PGA TOUR Championships circuit. To give you an idea of the types of players and the level of quality involved, the 2018 participants include Nancy Lopez, Annika Sorenstam, Pat Bradley, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Lee Trevino. How is that for star power? It speaks to how the tournament is viewed by the players and received by the Twin Cities golfing aficionados.

Historically the players at both Bunker Hills and TPC have been able to go low. Scoring in the high teens and low 20’s below par isn’t out of the question, and keep in mind this is a three day event. Looking back at the scoring milestones at the 3M Championship we see that the 54-hole scoring record and the lowest winning total in tournament history is 191; established by David Frost in 2010. Frost also set the event’s score-in-relation-to-par record that year at a staggering 25-under. That’s lights out golf. This matched the PGA TOUR Champions’ all-time record for lowest winning score in a three-round tournament. The 18-hole scoring record was set last year in 2017 when Paul Goydos shot a 60 during his 2017 victory. That broke the previous record, shared by Frost in 2010 and Kenny Perry in 2015, by one stroke. There appears to be a fairly recent trend with many of the tournaments historical low rounds coming in the last five years. Only one round in PGA TOUR Champions history has ever been lower than Goydos’ 60 and that was a Kevin Sutherland’s 59 which he shot in 2014 on the second day of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, New York (by the way, Sutherland did not win the Dick’s tournament that year). The Frost victory in 2010 also established the 3M Championship’s event’s record for largest margin of victory when Frost beat runner-up Mark Calcavecchia by 7 strokes.

Attendance at this stop on the PGA TOUR Champions has always been stellar and likely played large into the PGA’s decision to convert the event to a full-fledged PGA TOUR stop. Perhaps Jeff Hintz, CEO for the Minnesota PGA Chapter summed it up best when asked about the importance of the 3M Championship and the impending start-up of the 3M Open, “As a resident of this great state, I’m proud of the many years of unrelenting efforts invested by the leadership at 3M and Pro Links Sports to make this a reality. The Twin Cities community and the State of Minnesota have a strong economy and an unwavering affinity for golf, which will create support for this event at a high level. Although some may say it’s ‘just a golf event,’ those in the industry know that it is much bigger than that for our community. It will enable golfers of all generations to witness the highest level of skill every year which will inspire more people to play this great game all while raising significant funds for charitable causes. I can’t wait to see the 3M Open flourish here in Minnesota!”

In this quote alone you can see the multi-level coordination and partnerships that are built during a PGA event. With sponsors, community leaders, donor recipients and the great fans of Minnesota it is no wonder the PGA has approved and moved forward with a new PGA TOUR stop in Minnesota.

It was finally in 2011 that the loyal spectator fan-base had the opportunity to cheer on their fellow Minnesotan Tom Lehman. He had been eligible to play the 3M Championship since 2009, but like other PGA Tour competitors before him, he still had the fire in his belly at the age of 50 and stuck to playing on the PGA TOUR. When Tom finally got his chance to play in front of the hometown crowd in 2011, he didn’t disappoint. He opened with a 65 in 2011 and played well the next two days, but fell just short of Jay Haas, who hung on to the top of the leaderboard shooting 15-under to win by one stroke under difficult, windy conditions. Tom has yet to claim a 3M Championship title and this will be his final year to do so. How fitting would it be for the Minnesota legend to raise the cup in the final year? It’s not hard to imagine a large crowd circulating the course with Tom on this last PGA TOUR Champions event. Those Minnesotan’s that will follow Lehman around the course will be cheering him on to ‘close the deal.’ Win or not, Tom is clearly one of the biggest draws at TPC during the 3M Championship, and his presence will continue to be felt as the event transitions into the 3M Open.

With the mix of local favorites like Tom and the international superstars soon to arrive, clearly the future is looking bright. Those near and dear to the industry could not be more pleased with what the Burnet Senior Classic, Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic and 3M Championship have done over the past 25 years. Now it’s our turn as the playing and attending public to turn the page and help them write history again. Farewell 3M Championship, hello 3M Open.