Lee Hodges (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Lee Hodges (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)BLAINE, Minnesota — Lee Hodges rarely gets upset, except maybe when his favorite football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, plays.
After keeping control of the 3M Open without getting upset, Hodges finally let go.
Hodges won the 3M Open by seven strokes with a 260 and a 67 in the final round on Sunday. It was his first win on the PGA Tour. He set tournament records with a 260 and a 67 in the final round.
“I’ll never forget what I went through this week,” Hodges said. “Every time I go to a tournament, I’ll just try to do what I did this week.”
Hodges had a five-stroke lead over J.T. Poston when the day began, and he had a three-stroke lead going into the par-5 last hole of his 65th career start. After Poston’s all-or-nothing approach led to a triple bogey, Hodges made his third-round birdie by tapping in a short putt.
Poston said, “I had to try it and see if there was any way I could make three there at the end and put some pressure on Lee.”
Lee, who was from Alabama and was 28 years old, gave his wife Savannah a big hug and lifted her up in joy after she ran out to the green to greet him. Then, Hodges’ college coach at Alabama, Jay Seawell, surprised him by showing up with a milkshake. Not bad for a guy from Ardmore, which is a small town.
Hodges said, “I’m very proud to be from there and to speak for those people.” “Man, I bet there’s a party going on right now in north Alabama.”
Poston scored 69, which tied him with Martin Laird and Kevin Streelman for second place. Dylan Wu shot a 64 to tie for fifth place with Keith Mitchell at 16 under.
Tony Finau, the defending champion and the highest-ranked player in this field at 10th in the FedEx Cup standings, shot a 70 to tie for seventh with two other players.
Hodges shot 63 on Thursday, 64 on Friday, and 66 on Saturday to take a commanding lead into the final round at the TPC Twin Cities course in Blaine, a former sod farm in the suburbs of Minneapolis. He played aggressively on Sunday, getting two eagles and two bogeys.
Hodges had only finished in the top three once before, in 2022, at The American Express in La Quinta, California. On Saturday, he said he couldn’t remember a five-shot lead in his entire career, including when he was an amateur, and that he felt like he was “playing with house money” now that he knew he would be on the tour next year.
Hodges said, “My wife and I ate dinner here last night. Then we went to get ice cream, and I slept like a baby.”
Hodges started the week in 74th place in the FedEx Cup standings, but with the $1.4 million prize for winning, he moved up to 33rd. After Brian Harman won the British Open last week, he became the 23rd leader or co-leader in the third round to win on tour this year.
Poston was 60th in the FedEx Cup standings at the start of the week, but he shot up to 38th.
Hodges scored 193, two strokes better than Scott Piercy’s score in the final round last year. Piercy then shot a 76, which included a triple bogey on hole 14, and lost a five-stroke lead with 11 holes left. Finau won by three strokes with a score of 67.
Hodges didn’t end up like that. His lead was cut from 6 to 4 when he made three putts on the 15th hole, and Poston made his fourth birdie of the afternoon with his second shot from the fairway to the green, about 7 feet from the cup. But Hodges immediately came back and tied Poston’s birdie on hole 16.
“He did a great job all day long. We knew it would take something special to make it happen, “Poston told us.
Poston’s second shot from the rough on the water’s edge hit the rocks on the retaining wall and bounced backward off the floating tournament logo before splashing and costing him a penalty stroke. His fifth shot went down the slope before the green, and his first putt went past the hole.
Beau Hossler’s chances of making the playoffs improved when he shot a fast 62 in the last round. This tied the course record and put him in a tie for 13th place at 13 under for the tournament. During the first event in 2019, Piercy, Bryson DeChambeau, Lucas Glover, and the winner, Matthew Wolff, all shot a 62.
At the start of the week, Hossler, who is 28 years old, was 62nd in the FedEx Cup standings. The top 70 players get to go to the three-stage playoff, which starts with the St. Jude Championship on August 10. Next weekend, the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the last chance to move up or down the rankings.
From holes 9 to 16, Hossler made eight straight birdies, one short of the PGA Tour record. That included a 45-foot putt on his second shot on No. 13 that he said “had no business” going in.