Lee Hodges of Huntsville, Alabama won the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota on Sunday in dominant fashion. The 28-year-old duck hunter shot a four round score of -24, and beat three players by seven strokes. Those golfers at -17 were Martin Laird of Glasgow, Scotland, and Americans Kevin Streelman of Winfield, Illinois and J.T. Poston of Hickory, North Carolina.
Hodges began the tournament shooting a first round score of eight-under-par 63. That was followed by a second round score of seven-under-par 64, a third round score of five-under-par 66, and a fourth round score of four-under-par 67. Despite only shooting -4 on Sunday, Hodges had two eagles. He was two-under-par on the par five sixth hole, and on the par five 12th hole.
The seven stroke win, was the largest margin of victory in the history of the 3M Open, the largest of margin of victory on the PGA Tour in three years, and capped off an anticlimactic weekend of golf as Celine Boutier of France won the Evian Masters by six strokes. Hodges’s score of -24 was also the best four round score in the history of the tournament. The old record belonged to Matthew Wolff of Simi Valley, California, who was at -21 in 2019.
If you have not heard of Hodges, you are not the only one. Even though he is a PGA Tour champion, Hodges still does not have a Wikipedia page.
Now Hodges has made a significant leap in the PGA Tour rankings. He has jumped from 110th in the world to 54th. That is a rise of 56 spots.
In the past, Hodges has had four top 10 finishes. He was third at the 2022 American Express (won by Hudson Swafford of Tallahassee, Florida), ninth at the 2022 Honda Classic (won by Sepp Straka of Austria), seventh at the 2022 CJ Cup (won by Rory McIlroy of Holywood, Northern Ireland), and sixth at the 2023 Valero Texas Open (won by Corey Conners of Listowel, Ontario, Canada).
