Lehman, van Rooyen get exemptions into 3M Open field - Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Three former or current Gophers golfers give this year’s six sponsor exemptions Minnesota connections for next week’s 3M Open in Blaine.

World No. 42 ranked Erik van Rooyen, 1996 British Open champion Tom Lehman and current Gopher Angus Flanagan will play at TPC Twin Cities.

Van Rooyen played for the Gophers from 2009 to 2013, when he turned pro. He won once and lost in a playoff on the European tour in 2019. The South African tied for 17th at the 2018 British Open at Carnoustie and tied for eighth at last year’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.

He won the coaches’ Tom Lehman Player of the Year while with the Gophers.

Lehman himself returns to TPC Twin Cities for the PGA Tour’s event second year after he was last summer’s feel-good story there. He was six-under par after two rounds and played on Saturday with eventual champion Matthew Wolff, the long-hitting college star who shot 62 in that third round. A former world No. 1 player, Lehman finished tied for 58th at 7-under par.

Lehman, 61, assisted on the design and redesign of the TPC Twin Cities course, where the 3M Open will be play July 23-26 without spectators as a made-for-TV event instead because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tournament executive Hollis Cavner personally extended Flanagan one of those six exemptions after he shot a final-round 64 to win the Minnesota State Open last week at the Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo. An Englishman entering his senior season, Flanagan won the Big Ten individual title when he was a sophomore.

Former Pepperdine star Sahith Theegala and European Tour players Matthias Schwab and Bernd Wiesberger received the other three exemptions, the tournament announced Tuesday.

Theegala won the Fred Haskins, Ben Hogan and most recently Jack Nicklaus college Player of the Year awards.

Wiesberger is ranked 29th in the world and finished third on the European Tour’s 2019 Race of Dubai standings after he won three times on that tour that year. Schwab played at Vanderbilt and had three Top 4 finishes last year in Europe.

World ranked No. 4 Dustin Johnson and No. 6 Brooks Koepka — major champions both — have committed to play. The 156-man field will be finalized by 4 p.m. Friday.

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