Ben Kohles soars two clear with eagle finish at 3M Open

The American was superb for his nine under 62 around a benign TPC Twin Cities on Thursday, finishing two ahead of Emiliano Grillo, Jackson Koivun and Gary Woodland.

Kohles made the turn at three under and drained four more birdies on the way to the 18th. There, his second shot from 241 yards out on the par five settled four feet from the cup and he sunk the putt for a closing eagle and the outright lead.

Kohles is seeking redemption this week. Earlier this month, he was in pole position to claim his maiden PGA Tour win, but double bogeyed the final hole to finish third.

"Of course you would like the outcome to be different, but you've just got to keep putting the pedal down and see where you go," reflected the 36-year-old.

Meanwhile, Grillo made birdie on five of his first seven holes, then added three straight birdies starting at the 12th. But a bogey-bogey-birdie finish set him back. He was still pretty happy though, as he was ahead of world number one Scottie Scheffler on the leaderboard.

"Any day beating Scottie Scheffler is a good day, so I'll take that," he said.

Scheffler was three off the lead after a flawless six under 65.

"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," said the four-time major winner.

"That was important keeping my momentum going. Once I started to hit fairways and gave myself some looks, was able to start making some birdies."