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The annual PGA Champions Tour stop comes to the Twin Cities this week. The 17th 3M Championship gets under way Monday with the first of four pro-am days before the 54-hole, no-cut tournament begins Friday morning.
WHO TO WATCH
Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer comes to town as the first Champions Tour player to reach $1 million in earnings for the second year in a row. Langer skipped the Dick's Sporting Goods Open in favor of a brief trip to his native Munich, Germany, on June 22-25. There, he finished tied for ninth in the European Tour's BMW International Open after being in second place after the third round. Fred Funk returns to the Twin Cities seven years after he chased Rich Beem and Tiger Woods down the stretch at the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine. This is Funk's first 3M Championship appearance. Nick Price, Mark O'Meara, Hal Sutton and Larry Mize are also making their 3M debuts.
THE COURSE
TPC Twin Cities -- the 19th course on the TPC Network -- is a 7,100-yard, par-72 design. It sits on a 550-acre former sod farm in Blaine and features 27 water hazards with various waste bunkers stretching up to 60 yards. More than 400 trees were added to fill in the existing tree lines. It was nominated by Golf Digest for "Best New Private Course" in 2000. It was ranked the seventh-hardest course in Minnesota by Twin Cities Business Journal, but last year it was the second-easiest course on the Champions Tour. In total, 106 sub-70 scores were posted. R.W. Eaks won with a record score of 23 under par. He tied a tournament record on Sunday with a 65.
THE PURSE
This year's winner will receive $262,500 of the $1.75 million total payout. The average tournament purse on the Champions Tour this season is a record $1.96 million. When the tour started in 1980, each event had a payout of $475,000.
TV COVERAGE
The Golf Channel will provide tape-delayed coverage each day: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, 6-8:30 p.m. Sunday.
DID YOU KNOW?
There have been 11 winners through the first 13 Champions Tour events this season; no player has defended his 3M Championship title in the event's 16-year history
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