3M Open Each Way Tips

The top-tier golfing action continues to come thick and fast. We’ve only just said goodbye to the Open Championship, leaving behind the majors for another year, and it’s already time for the next PGA Tour event, which will be the 3M Open, played at TPC Twin Cities, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Naturally, the field is far less stacked with  big names than it was at Hoylake last week, but there will still be some fine players in attendance at TPC Twin Cities, while the betting is typically competitive, so finding the winner will be typically tricky.

What is Each-Way Betting?

It’s that time again. Ahead of each golf tournament, like so many fans and punters, we look to see if we snuff out some each-way value, but let’s first go over the basics of each-way betting for those new to the subject.

Each-way betting is often the way to go when it comes to golf tournaments. In fact, most people who bet on golf, place each-way bets. For those who don’t know, an each-way bet is essentially one bet that is split into two. In other words, part of the bet will be on a golfer to win and the other part will be on a golfer to finish in the number of places allocated by a bookmaker, typically the first five or six. This week, most bookmakers are paying at least five places on the 3M Open, while a select few are offering up to eight places.

If you have an each-way bet on a golfer who wins, you’ll win both parts of the bet. If the golfer does not win, but finishes in one of the allocated places, such as fifth, you’ll lose the win part of the bet, but win the place part of the bet. The place part of an each-way bet typically pays out at one quarter or one fifth of the full odds.

Here’s an example:

Imagine you have £10 each-way on Sungjae Im to win the 3M Open at odds of 18/1. Your total bet will come to £20 (£10 to win, £10 to place). Should Im win the tournament, you’ll win both bets. However, if the South Korean fails to win but still finishes in one of the places, you’ll win the place part of the bet, which in this case would return £46. Why £46? Well, one fifth of 18/1 equals 3.6/1 . £10 at 3.6/1 returns £46.

Each-Way Betting Tips

Ahead of this event, at the current prices, there are three players who stand out as viable each-way plays. The trio of each-way candidates is as follows:

Tony Finau @ 18/1

It would not surprise me in the slightest if Finau went back-to-back in this event, and frankly, 18/1 looks slightly generous. I’d have the ball-striking extraordinaire right at the head of the market here, that’s for sure.

We saw how well Finau got on with TPC Twin Cities last season. He handles the fairways well, before enjoying himself  both on his way to and on the greens. That wasn’t the first time that the man from Utah thrived in Minneapolis. He’s made four out of four cuts at the 3M Open and is yet to finish outside of the top 30. In 2020, he finished third, and is one of only two players set to tee it up this week with two previous top-three finishes in this event.

Finau failed to make his mark at the Open Championship last week, but this test is much more up his street, so I really wouldn’t discount him based on his performance in Merseyside. A winner on the PGA Tour earlier this season, the 33-year-old is currently rank 11 on tour for strokes gained: total, while he’s ranked seventh for strokes gained: approach, which is eye-catching given the importance of that metric this week. Moreover, of every player in the field this week, Finau ranks fourth for strokes gained: approach at TPC Twin Cities since 2019. He ranks first if we remove players to have played less than three times at the venue.

Emiliano Grillo @ 25/1

Argentinian Emiliano Grillo has enjoyed himself on the PGA Tour this season. He went close at both the RBC Heritage and the Mexico Open at Vidanta, before finally putting it all together to win the Charles Schwab Challenge in late May.

The player now ranked 36th in the world could be forgiven for crashing out at the U.S. Open directly after winning the Charles Schwab, but he’s since recovered his form to finish T15 at the Travelers Championship, while his game appeared to be in fine shape at the Open Championship last week. Against the very best in the business, Grillo posted a hugely respectable sixth-place finish. If he can use that effort as a platform from which to build at a venue that he likes, then the 30-year-old will be a danger to all this week.

Tony Finau is one of the two players to have posted more than one top-three finish at the 3M Open. The other? Emiliano Grillo. The Argentine finished third at the 3M Open, tied with Finau, in 2020, while last year, the finish second. Interestingly, of those to have played more than eight previous rounds at TPC Twin Cities, Grillo ranks as the second-best in this field for strokes gained: total. Finau sits first.

Adam Hadwin @ 35/1

Another player who catches the eye in the betting is Adam Hadwin, who has performed well on several occasions this season. Back in March, he posted a very respectable T13 finish at the mightily tough PLAYERS Championship, while he took his form to the next level when finishing second (in his own right) at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. A T12 finish at the RBC Canadian Open is Hadwin’s best effort since, but we shouldn’t discount him here.

Like Grillo and Finau, Hadwin has played well at TPC Twin Cities on more than one occasion. He’s made three out of three cuts at this tournament, finishing inside the top ten on two occasions. In 2019, he finished fourth, while in 2021, he was sixth. Such form is positive, as are the strokes gained numbers that he has previously delivered in Minneapolis. Of those players to play three or more times at TPC Twin Cities since the 3M Open launched in 2019, only Finau and Grillo rank better in terms of strokes gained: total.