Ben James Tops Fantasy Golf (FanDuel) Picks at the 3M Open
The PGA Tour is now beginning its stretch run to the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The 3M Open will take place this weekend at TPC Twin Cities just outside of the St. Paul/Minneapolis metro area. The event will be the first of three final events before the 3-event FedEx Cup Playoffs, which start on August 13.
The tournament is not a signature event so that big names will be scarce. Scottie Scheffler, the World No. 1, is in this field as a hefty favorite. Beyond him, the next highest-ranked golfer in the field is Hideki Matsuyama at No. 30 in the world. Defending Champion, Kurt Kitayama shows up, and otherwise, the field is one for longshots. Who might win this weekend? Let's try to find out.
Key Course Metrics
The private golf course, TPC Twin Cities, plays relatively fair. The course is more of your standard parkland style. Designed by Arnold Palmer in consultation with Tom Lehman, it has varying green complexes, dogleg fairways, and moderately penalizing rough that will be tall but not as tall as in major championships.
The demands to win the 3M Open will place a higher-than-usual emphasis on driving the golf ball. The driver will be a common club, and the further and more accurately the ball is hit, the better the hole will be set up.
Otherwise, par-saves will be crucial when missing the green and reaching the deeper rough. With longer-iron demands on select holes and tougher pin positions likely into the weekend, approach will be the biggest winning factor of the weekend. Click here to view GolfDigest's golf course profile.
Datagolf does a fantastic job of highlighting the biggest factors. Here is theirRelative Importance Model:
Tournament History and Weather Report
The 3M Open has been an active PGA Tour golf tournament since 2019. It is generally easier to score and has allowed golf's non-top names to find victory. Here are the last 5 winners:
- 2025: Kurt Kitayama (-23)
- 2024: Jhonattan Vegas (-17)
- 2023: Lee Hodges (-24)
- 2022: Tony Finau (-17)
- 2021: Cameron Champ (-15)
The weather suggests the golf course may moderately firm up slightly coming into Thursday. Both Tuesday and Wednesday will linger around 80 degrees. The Tuesday wind will be up, with gusts rising to 25 miles per hour.
The entire golf tournament will feature beautiful, non-threatening weather. Thursday and Friday will be in the mid-80s, while Saturday and Sunday will rise into the 90smid-80s,. The wind will be 5-10 miles per hour each day, with just about no rain expected.
The golf course will play fair to expectations. We expect a winning score between -14 and -20. Whoever gets hot may just run away with this event, and it certainly should not guarantee Scheffler snags an easy win, despite betting odds of plus-240.
Top Fantasy Golf Picks (FanDuel)
Corey Conners ($10,200)
Conners finds himself undervalued based on his career over the past few years. He may be underperforming year to date, but Conners is coming into form. He finished T-14 at the Open, and he has 3 top-25 results in his last 4 events. In fact, Conners has only missed 2 cuts all year long, the first of which was in February.
Conners ranks 32nd on the PGA Tour in approach. He has the upside of being a top-20 golfer in the world, and if he plays well this week, he very well might win.
Ben James ($10,000)
I personally endorse James as a breakout candidate over the next year on the PGA Tour. The newly turned professional has an average finish of 32.6 over his 5 career starts. Before that, his amateur results are something to behold:
Mac Meissner ($9,500)
Upside, upside, upside. Who has the quality of golf in their pocket to have a breakout week? Meissner does.
Meissner ranks 62nd out of 156 golfers in approach. He then ranks 32nd around-the-green. That makes Meissner about a top-30% fit. In a field of vastly reduced talent, he may be a top-10% likely winner, salaried as the 24th-highest golfer. Meissner also has 4 top-10 finishes in his last 9 events.
Stephan Jaeger ($8,900)
Jaeger has played in 10 non-signature events this season. In those, he has an average finish of 24th place. As the 38th-highest-salaried player, value is foreseen. Jaeger happens to also rank 16th on the PGA Tour around-the-green and 4th-best in this field. While we cannot expect a victory or even a top-5 finish, Jaeger proves to be valuable at cost.
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.