The man who has held the world No. 1 ranking for nearly 200 weeks has not entered the winner’s circle in nearly 200 days. The latter streak could be in jeopardy this weekend as Scottie Scheffler caught fire on the greens at TPC Twin Cities on Thursday at the 2026 3M Open en route to an opening 6-under 65.Scheffler’s 6-under figure puts him three strokes behind first-round leader Ben Kohles, who continued a summer to remember with a 9-under 62. He is two strokes clear of Jackson Koivun, Gary Woodland and Emiliano Grillo. Lucas Glover, Michael Brennan, Jesper Svensson and Kevin Roy are among those tied with Scheffler at 6 under.”I didn’t hit a bunch of fairways early, but I was able to kind of manage my way around and get out of some trouble areas without making any bogeys,” Scheffler stated. “That was important, keeping my momentum going. Once I started to hit fairways and gave myself some looks, [I] was able to start making some birdies.”Following a week at The Open where he made just six putts outside of 10 feet, Scheffler nearly matched that total on Thursday with five. The 20-time PGA Tour winner missed a birdie bid from 7 feet on his opening hole, but that was the last opportunity he let slip by as he gained north of three strokes on the field with the mallet in hand.
Scheffler’s birdie conversions came from 15 feet on No. 12 (his third hole of the morning), 17 feet on No. 18, 15 feet on No. 1, 30 feet on No. 4, 3 feet on No. 6 and a 10-footer on the par-4 7th, which was his final circle of the day. In between all the birdies, he kept the scorecard clean thanks to a timely 18-foot par save on No. 15 as well.”Fresh greens are a little bit easier than like links greens,” Scheffler stated. “Part of playing links golf is the ball’s not going to roll true every single time. Felt like I was just on the wrong end of that last week. Got here and made sure I was lined up where I thought it was and made sure I was hitting it on that line, and that was about it.”Scheffler will now try to keep his foot on the gas over the next 54 holes amid a field filled with players looking to make a push not only up the leaderboard but up the FedEx Cup standings, where the world No. 1 also occupies the No. 1 spot.
“Golf’s funny,” Scheffler stated. “Some days, you’re hitting your lines, and the line seems to be tracking toward the hole, and other days, it feels like you’re doing the same thing, and it kind of goes around the hole. But today was a day in which I was able to hole some nice putts, and that’s why I was able to make some birdies out there.”
Bogey-free 65 for Scottie, business as usual.He’s now T1 @3MOpen and leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. pic.twitter.com/4Tuvroo48n
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 23, 2026
