BLAINE -- Scott Piercy grew up in Las Vegas, played college golf at San Diego State and turned professional in 2001. He spent the next six years bouncing around on mini-tours, but in 2008 he gained full status on the-then Nationwide -- now Korn Ferry -- Tour. Things didn't go well right off the bat. As the year went on, however, Piercy seemed to find his A game, and in August he won twice. He finished ninth on the money list, which earned him a promotion to the PGA Tour in 2009.
Since then, Piercy has finished in the top 125 on the FedEx points list -- and got into the lucrative FedEx Playoffs -- every year except one, 2014, and that exception was the result of an injury.
He hasn't been injured during the 2021-22 season, but he hasn't played all that well, either, and he needs to get going if he's going to make the top 125 again. There are only three tournaments left on the regular-season schedule, and going into the 3M Open this week, Piercy was No. 138 on the FedEx points list, with 269 points. His best finish was a tie for 11th in his first event of the season, the Fortinet Championship last September.
(In case anyone is wondering, Piercy is still doing pretty well financially, even though he's down pretty far on the money list for 2021-22. At No. 142, he's still made $667,190. And he's made $22,201,685 in official earnings for his career, not counting the more than $340,00 he made on the Nationwide/Korn Ferry Tour.)
Piercy, who will turn 44 on Nov. 6, came into the 3M having missed four cuts in his last six tournaments, and putting was a large part of the reason for his lack of success. So he switched putters this week. He has also switched his caddy, swing coach and driver, but the change in putters seems to have been the one that made the most difference.
On Thursday, he made roughly 150 feet of putts and shot a 6-under-par 65 at TPC Twin Cities on a day when strong winds made scoring difficult, to say the least. Piercy and his putter were no less impressive on Friday. Starting on the back nine, he birdied his first four holes and went on to post a 64. The resulting 36-hole total of 129 (minus 13) has him three strokes clear of the field going into the weekend.
Emiliano Grillo shot 65, and he's in second place at 132. The highlight of his round was an eagle 3 at the 601-yard, par-5 sixth hole. He also made five birdies, and he had one bogey, at the par-3 13th hole. It's the only bogey he's made so far.
He's another guy who could really move up on the points list with a victory at TPC Twin Cities. Right now, he's No. 93.
The round of the tournament so far was a 63 shot Friday by Callum Tarren, who's another two behind at 134. Tarren, a 30-year-old tour rookie from England who, like Piercy, was a golf pro for more than half a decade before making it onto the PGA Tour. He earned his place on the big tour by finishing in the top 25 at last year's Korn Ferry Finals, but got off to a painfully slow start after making the jump. In his first eight starts, he missed the cut seven times and got disqualified the other time. Since then, he's made six of nine cuts, including a fifth-place finish at the Puerto Rico Open.
"When I first got out here," he conceded, "all I was trying to do was make the cut. Now that I've gained some confidence, I'm trying to get into contention to win."
Callum birdied the 478-yard, par-4 second hole on Friday, but was only 1 under through five holes. He birdied the sixth and the par-4 seventh, and after parring the par-3 eighth, he made one of the few birdies at the daunting, 512-yard, par-4 ninth. The 10th, at 398 yards, is one of only three par-4's at TPC Twin Cities that are shorter than 400 yards, and Callum birdied it.
He also bridied the par-5 12th (574 yards), the par-4 15th (455 yards) and made his last birdie of the day at the 189-yard, par-3 17th.
There was a fivesome tied for fourth at 135, and Tom Hoge, the former two-time Minnesota State Amateur champion -- from Fargo? -- was one of them. Hoge, who got into the State Am because he was a member of Village Green in Moorhead. His round wasn't really going anywhere when he made the turn Friday. A birdie at the sixth was offset by a bogey at the ninth, but he birdied the 10th and 12th holes, before he three-putted the 13th for a bogey.
He made a scrambling par at the 14th (437 yards, par 4), and then got going in the right direction again with a birdie at the 15th, and he birdied the 17th, as
well, to cap off a 68.
There are a lot of players this week who are just trying to get into the top 125 on the points list, but three of the guys in the tie for fourth are not among them. Hoge, who won for the first time on the PGA Tour this winter, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, is No. 17 on the list (1,309 points).
Two places behind him, at No. 19 (990 points), is Sungjae Im. He was tied with Piercy for the lead after the first round, but he could do no better than a 70 in the second. It was a kind of start-and-stop effort, beginning with a birdie on the first hole, followed by a double bogey on the second.
Tony Finau is also in the group at 135. Although he's won twice, it feels as though he should have won more, because he always seems to be in contention. He followed a 67 on Thursday with a 68 on Friday. Finau first came to the attention of the public when he competed on Big Break Disney Golf in 2009. Five years later, he earned his PGA Tour Card, and since then he's made $28,065,102.
He started the 3M Open with a bogey on the first hole, but he hasn't made a bogey since then. Finau certainly doesn't lack power -- he averages a fraction of a yard less and 310 yards with his driver -- but he didn't birdie any of the par 5's on Friday. Instead, he birdied the seventh, the 11th and the 17th.
Robert Streb and Doug Ghim are the other two players tied for fourth and 135.
The other sort-of-Minnesotan in the field this week is Troy Merritt, whose family moved to Fridley shortly before he started ninth grade. He played high school basketball and golf at Spring Lake Park High School, and was a Division II All-American for the Winona State golf team for two years before transferring to Boise State, where he won the last five regular-season tournaments when he was a senior, and was a Division I All-American that year.
He led the old PGA Tour Q-School Finals wire to wire (144 holes) and has been on the big tour for more than a decade, winning twice. Merritt was in danger of missing the cut after a first-round 72 at the 3M, but he came back with a 69 and is tied for 36th at 141.
There were supposed to be three sort-of Minnesotans in the field, but former University of Minnesota star -- and 2012 State Am champ -- Erik Van Rooyen, who withdrew from the British Open just before that tournament started (neck injury), WD'd again this week
Two notable non-locals just made the cut. Chez Reavie, who won the Barracuda Championship last week, shot 75 on Thursday, but he came back with a 68, and 1-over 143 was the Magic Number on Cut Day.
Also making it on the number was the defending champion, Cameron Champ. He had a bigger hill to climb for that then Reavie did, because he started out 6 over after seven holes. But the longest driver on the PGA Tour (320.2 yards on average) got two back when he eagled the 18th, for a 75. On Friday, he started on the back nine and finished with four birdies on the last five holes of the front nine for a 68, and a 143.
For Piercy, Friday's 64 was basically stress-free. The closest he came to making a bogey was at the eighth, where the pin was on the left side of the green, and Piercy's tee shot ended up on the far right, 55 feet away. He left his first putt 10 feet short, but made the next one. For the second day in a row, he made something like 150 feet of putts.
"Yeah, like I said, I put the new putter in yesterday," Piercy noted. "I think it got me a little bit farther away from the ball, maybe a little bit more on the balls of my feet instead of my heels, so maybe I'm a little more stable. I think the squareness of the putter kind of helps me line it up. For some reason, I feel like it's a little hotter roll than my old one, and that's probably a good thing, because I have a tendency to leave stuff short."
If Piercy were to win the 3M, he would pick up 500 points and move into the top 50 on the FedEx list.
"There's a lot of business to take care of this weekend," he said. "But to come out the first two days and do what I did gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend."
Saturday's business will begin a little earlier than originally scheduled, because of the threat of rain beginning late in the morning. So the first threesomes will go off both tees at 6:50 a.m. The leaders will go off at 9:02.
3M Open
At TPC Twin Cities
Par 71, 7,431 yards
Blaine
Second-round results
1. Scott Piercy 65-64--129
2. Emiliano Grillo 67-65--132
3. Callum Tarren 71-63--134
T4. Tony Finau 67-68--135
T4. Robert Streb 68-67--135
T4. Tom Hoge 67-68--135
T4. Sungjae Im 65-70--135
T4., Doug Ghim 67-68--135
T9. Patton Kizzire 68-69--137
T9. Lee Hodges 70-67--137
T9. Jared Wolfe 68-69--137
T9. Chesson Hadley 68-69--137
T9. Peter Malnati 69-69--137
T14. Cam Davis 70-68--138
T14. Adam Long 69-69--138
T14. Greyson Sigg 70-68--138
T14. Danny Willett 72-66--138
T14. Brice Garnett 67-71--138
T14. Chase Seiffert 71-67--138
T28. Rick Lamb 71-69--140
T36. Troy Merritt 72-69--141
T46. Rickie Fowler 70-72--142
T46. Jason Day 70-72--142
T63. Chez Reavie 75-68--143
T63. Cameron Champ 75-68--143
Missed cut -- 143
Ryan Moore 71-75--146
Sahith Theeglaa 73-73--146
Andre Metzger 72-76--148
Daniel Gale 74-74--148
Jefff Sorenson 77-74--151
Chris Naegel 77-75--152
Mardy Fish 81-74--155
WD -- Hideki Matsuyama 77-WD
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