As season winds down, pros balance patience, aggressiveness

BLAINE, Minn. — It’s easy for pros to become conflicted when the PGA Tour schedule closes in on August. In golf, patience is critical. Play your game, stick to the plan, the scores will come. Everyone knows that.

But this time of year, what if they don’t? The 3M Open is the penultimate event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, and many of the players in this week’s field know exactly where they sit in the FedEx Cup standings.

The PGA Tour is off next week for the Olympics, but the week after is the season-ending Wyndham Championship. After that, the top 70 in the standings are guaranteed their PGA Tour card for 2025 and advance to the first stop of the lucrative FedEx Cup Playoffs. The top 50 after the FedEx St. Jude Championship advance to the BMW Championship — the final event before the season-ending Tour Championship — and those 50 are also given spots into all of the Signature Events for 2024. That’s where pros make the big money.

“Patience is key out here whether it be to win golf tournaments, to make cuts, to try and keep your card to try and get in the top 30,” said Matt NeSmith, who shot a seven-under 64 Friday and sits at 10 under after 36 holes, good for the clubhouse lead with the afternoon wave still on the course. He’s currently 132nd in the FedEx Cup standings but could make a big move with a strong weekend finish. “I think it pertains to each and every person out here. You never know when you’re going to get hot, you never know when good golf’s coming. Just kind of try and be patient, try and keep calmer heads and you never know what will happen.”

But how patient can you really be when your rounds are numbered and there are birdies to chase? On the other hand, is getting overly aggressive a recipe for disaster? It could be at a place like TPC Twin Cities, where water (on 15 of 18 holes) is everywhere and the wind is up (like it is now).

Since the 3M Open started in 2019, it’s consistently generated some of the highest water-ball totals on Tour. In fact, there’s so many on 18 alone, for every ball that finds the pond on the par-5 finisher, the tournament donates a dozen to the First Tee.

And the later we get in the tournament, the more players press. Not just for FedEx Cup positioning, but to win. Last year, J.T. Poston and Lee Hodges stepped to the 18th tee on Sunday with Hodges leading Poston by three (and Poston three clear of third). After his drive finished near the water and below his feet, Poston elected to go for the green from 214 yards out. His ball hit the rocks in front of the green and landed in the water. He made 8 and later said, “we’re not coming here to finish second.”

“I respect the hell out of him,” Hodges, the defending champ, said on Wednesday in his pre-tournament press conference. “He was trying to make eagle; like there’s no layup in his game.”

There’s a lot of opportunity for those who make the cut this weekend, but they also have to balance when patience needs to evolve into do-or-die aggression to turn the week, or season, around.

Doug Ghim, who shot 64 Friday, said patience on Tour is a learned skill.

“I’ve definitely become a lot better player and patience is probably the No. 1 thing, just trying to consistently get better,” he said Friday. “I think in our game it’s so hard week in and week out because it’s an individual sport, there’s only one winner and it’s hard not to feel impatient or dejected sometimes when things aren’t going as well as you’d like to and maybe some of the guys you grew up [with] are starting to win and you’re waiting for your turn.”

Rookie Jacob Bridgeman, who shot 63 on Thursday, will be in the mix (currently 135th in the standings) this weekend. Same for Ghim and Lanto Griffin, both eight under and both fighting for positioning. There’s even veterans like Matt Kuchar, who is seven under and in contention with 36 to play.

At 155th in the standings, Kuchar, 46, is the only player to never miss a FedEx Cup Playoffs. He can still make it with a strong weekend and another big finish at the Wyndham, if he decides to play it.

As for this weekend, it will be windy (10-16 mph) with gusts over 25 mph possible. That means a lot can happen.

“If it stays like this where it’s blowing hard, then you’ve got to put a game plan together where it’s not as aggressive and you’ve got to manage the game a little bit better,” said Jhonattan Vegas, who is eight under. “We’ll see what the weather gives us and we’ll go from there.”

Josh Berhow

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.