Lamb, Gale Qualify for 3M Open with 63's; Holmgren Misses in Playoff

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BLAINE -- In 2013, when he was a senior at the University of Tennessee, Rick Lamb tied for second individually at the NCAA Championships, three strokes behind the winner, Max Homa. Homa has gone on to become a PGA Tour regular, and he's won twice during the 2021-22 season. He's made more than $5 million during that time, and in the eight years since he earned fulltime status on the tour, he's made more than $12.5 million.

Two of the players Lamb tied in that NCAA were Jon Rahm and Daniel Berger, also PGA Tour winners whose earnings are well into eight figures. (Between them, Rahm and Berger have made more than $57 million in official money.)

But even if you're an elite college player, the odds on making it big on the PGA Tour aren't all that great, and the road to get to the tour can be long and winding. Lamb is a prime example of that. He has spent most of his time since concluding his college career on the web.com/now Korn Ferry Tour, and he's had some success. He won the LECOM Health Challenge in 2016, and he's earned $375,295 in the 93 tournaments he's played on what could be considered golf's equivalent to Class AAA in baseball. 

But he's hoping to move up the ladder, and gain some status on the PGA Tour. He'll have a chance to take his first step this week, after qualifying at Victory Links GC on Monday to play in the 3M Championship, which will begin Thursday at TPC Twin Cities. 

The difficulty of getting through these kinds of qualifiers was evident in the results from Victory Links, which is not all that easy a golf course. Lamb, a 31-year-old from Nashville, and 26-year-old Australian Daniel Gale both shot 8-under-par 63's to claim the first two of the four spots available in the 3M Championship.

There were four more players tied at 64, which meant a 4-for-2 playoff to get the last two spots. Andre Metzger, the 40-year-old former two-time Bobcat (North Dakota) Open champion and No. 1 money winner on the Dakotas Tour who lives in Sioux Falls for much of the summer and Phoenix in the winter, got one of the spots. Chris Naegel, who is from St. Louis, got the other. 

So that meant two guys who shot 64 didn't make it. One of them was Van Holmgren, the 6-foot-8-inch former Minnesota state high school and State Amateur champion who added a State Open victory to his resume two weeks ago. He made four birdies in a row on the back nine (Nos. 14 through 17) to get to 7 under for the day -- but that wasn't quite good enough!

Holmgren, who capped off the 2022 college regular season during his senior year at Florida Gulf Coast by winning the Atlantic Sun (ASUN) Conference championship, narrowly missed making it to the Final Stage of Korn Ferry Q-School last fall, which would have guaranteed him at least limited status on the Korn Ferry Tour this year. He made it through the Q-School for the PGA Tour Canada this spring, and has the distinction of being the tallest player ever to compete on the Canadian Tour. But he's played in only two tournaments so far, and is No. 110 on the money list with CAD$620.

Also coming up short in the playoff after shooting 64 was a Californian, Hayden Shieh. 

In these PGA Tour qualifiers, you have to get off to a fast start -- and just keep making birdies. Lamb eagled the 503-yard, par-5 second hole at Victory Links and added birdies at the sixth and seventh holes on his way to a front-nine 31, yet he still needed a clean scorecard -- no bogeys -- and four more birdies on the back nine (11, 12, 16, 17) just to avoid the playoff.

Gale, who is No. 10 on the Order of Merrit for the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australia, shot 30 on the front nine. But he bogeyed the par-5 12th, and as a result, it took four birdies in a row, from 13th through the 16th, for him to reserve his place at TPC Twin Cities on Thursday,.     


3M Open Monday Qualifying

At Victory Links

Par 71, 7,048 yards

Blaine

Final results (top 4 finishers qualify for 3M Open, beginning Thursday at TPC Twin Cities)

T1. Daniel Gale, Australia                       63

T1. Rick Lamb, Nashville, Tenn.              63

T3. Andre Metzger, Sioux Falls               64 (won playoff)

T3. Chris Naegel, Wildwood, Mo.              64 (won playoff) 

Did not qualify

T3. Van Holmgren, Plymouth                64

T3. Hayden Shieh, Freemont, Calif.         64

T7. Jared Kobren, Sarasota, Fla.             65

T7. Norman Xiong, Canyon Lake, Calif.   65

T7. Daniel Wetterich, Cincinnati, Ohio      65

T19. Thomas Campbell, Savage             67

T28. Josh Persons, Fargo                       68

T28. Hudson Carpenter, Stillwater          68

T34. Brady Madsen, Raymont                 69

T45. Andrew Israelson, Bemidji              70

T50. Trey Fessler, Hanover                      71