Tom Watson will return to Blaine to play in 3M Championship

Hollis Cavner has lost count of the number of messages he's left Tom Watson asking — begging? — the eight-time major champion to play in the 3M Championship.

"I've sent them to him, our mutual friends and his wife, who's just the neatest lady of all time," Cavner, the tournament's director, said. "Anyone I can think of to get him back up here."

So when Watson's name showed up on Cavner's cellphone at the airport recently, even TSA guidelines took a back seat.

"I didn't care that they were about to close the doors, I was going to call the office," Cavner said. "This was news I had to share right away."

After a three-year hiatus, one of the most decorated golfers on the Champions Tour is coming back to TPC Twin Cities in Blaine. Watson will join Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and others July 27-Aug. 2 for Minnesota's 50-and-over tour stop.

The admission-free event once again falls the week after the Senior British Open. It's a main reason some skip what is otherwise considered a popular destination for Champions Tour players.

Watson, 65, is a five-time British Open champion. He often sticks around across the pond to take in the land he so much loves, thus declining to play the 3M Championship.

Fellow Champions Tour golfer Rocco Mediate, who spends his summers in Minnesota and appeared with Cavner at a 3M Championship media event Monday, said Watson's presence in Blaine could bring back old bouts of giddiness.

Mediate called Watson his "idol" and said he struggled to keep his nerves in check the first time they were paired for an event.

"You watch him swing a golf club, and you're in awe," Mediate said. "I was in awe 30 years ago and when I watch him hit it now I still am."

"You're watching history out here," Mediate continued. "These are the legends of the game and they still play their [tails] off. That's so cool. You think you get that with 60-year-old ballplayers coming back to play? No disrespect, but they're not going to go out and throw 90 miles-per-hour fastballs. These guys can still throw 90 mph fastballs on the golf course."

Also back this summer at the 3M Championship are golf's "Big Three" — Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player — for the Greats of Golf exhibition event. The trio appeared for the first time last year, but poor weather ended the event early much to the disappointment of the deep galleries.