Every July, a stretch of northeast Blaine turns into something residents elsewhere in the metro rarely experience: a credentialed zone with its own traffic pattern, its own shuttle system, and its own set of rules about who can turn onto which cul-de-sac. This year the shift arrives July 20-26, when the 3M Open returns to TPC Twin Cities. If you live in Blaine, the tournament is less a spectator event than a week to plan around, and the households who move through it easily are the ones who read the whole National Sports Center calendar, not just the leaderboard.
The Week At A Glance
The tournament fills seven days, but the shape of each day is different. Practice and pro-am play come first, then four rounds of PGA TOUR competition.
| Date | What's on at TPC Twin Cities |
|---|---|
| Mon–Tue, Jul 20–21 | Setup and practice rounds |
| Wed, Jul 22 | Pro-Am |
| Thu, Jul 23 | Round 1 |
| Fri, Jul 24 | Round 2 |
| Sat, Jul 25 | Round 3 |
| Sun, Jul 26 | Final round |
The round dates come straight from the venue's published schedule listing the Tuesday practice round on 7/21, Wednesday Pro Am on 7/22, and Rounds 1 through 4 running Thursday July 23 through Sunday July 26. Crowd density builds through the week and peaks Saturday. If you have a Costco run, a dentist appointment on 109th, or an airport drop at MSP, the friction is real Thursday through Sunday and mild the first two days.
The Field Is Worth The Week
Blaine's tournament used to trade on its Arnold Palmer pedigree. This year it trades on the leaderboard. The 3M Open announced that World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will compete in Minnesota's only PGA TOUR event, set for July 20–26 at TPC Twin Cities. That single commitment changes the atmosphere along Tournament Players Parkway, and it changes ticket demand for the Thursday and Friday rounds that usually feel like the calm days.
For context on what's under the players' spikes: TPC Twin Cities is a par-72, 7,468-yard championship course designed by Arnold Palmer to blend with the natural rolling terrain on the site of a former sod farm 15 miles north of Minneapolis/St. Paul. The PGA TOUR lists a slightly different par and yardage for this year's setup at par 71, 7,431 yards, which is the tournament configuration rather than the member scorecard. Small distinction, but the kind of thing worth knowing if a neighbor asks.
If You Live Inside The Ropes
A slice of the neighborhood around the course becomes a controlled-access zone during play. This is the piece that catches new residents off guard.
Residents living inside the secure perimeter will need the proper credential or identification to enter into the neighborhood. These credentials are distributed by the 3M Open, and questions can be directed to the 3M Open office at 763-783-9000. Anyone wishing to go through a secure access point will need a resident pass. Residents who live on the course will not be able to access the course during tournament play; access is restricted to credentialed tournament personnel only. The Blaine Police Department is the lead agency for public safety planning and implementation related to the 3M Open.
Two practical reads on that:
- If you've moved in since last July and haven't seen a credential packet, call the tournament office this week rather than showing up at a checkpoint Thursday morning.
- If you host guests, dog walkers, or a landscaping crew during tournament days, they need to be on your pass or they will not get through. Grocery deliveries and rideshares are the most common Friday-afternoon problem.
None of this is punitive; it's the same protocol the city runs each year. It just rewards planning by a couple of days.
Parking, If You're Going
The tournament does not park spectators at the course. It shuttles them.
General and Corporate Parking is located at the Anoka County Airport, KeyAir entrance. Parking and Shuttle Service is FREE of charge. That's the default for almost everyone. The exception, if it applies to you, is small and specific: if you drive a Ford vehicle, you can park for free without a pass in the Northland Ford Dealers General Parking Lot area. All other vehicles are subject to a parking fee for premium lots. Advance parking passes save time at the gate.
A note for families weighing whether to make it a first-timer outing: children 15 and under are admitted free with a daily fan pass sponsored by Cub, and kids have front-row access to special autograph zones at the practice facility. The practice-round days early in the week are the friendliest for that. Sunday is not.
The Rest Of The NSC Campus Doesn't Pause
Here is the part of the week most Blaine coverage misses. The National Sports Center is not a golf venue with some extra fields attached. It is a premier sports complex encompassing over 600 acres of land dedicated to athletic development, competition, and recreation, and its programming keeps running while the tournament is on.
Two examples for the same week:
- Barça Academy Camp runs Monday, July 20 through Friday, July 24 at the NSC, which means soccer families are pulling in and out of the 105th Avenue campus at the same time tournament traffic is building on Tournament Players Parkway.
- AKA Sport's All Sports Camp runs weekdays June 8 through September 4, 2026 at the National Sports Center, with drop-off between 7 and 9 a.m. and pickup between 4 and 6 p.m.
Layer those on top of the tournament shuttles and you get the practical reason locals build a week-of routine: two overlapping events at 1750 and 1850 105th Ave NE that share the same road network. The households who leave for daycare or the office 20 minutes earlier Thursday and Friday spend those 20 minutes not sitting on Radisson Road.
What The Week Says About Blaine
Zoom out and the tournament is a preview of how the city's calendar works from June through Labor Day. Earlier this summer, the National Sports Center hosted the Special Olympics USA Games 2026 from June 21-25. The USA Cup youth soccer tournament follows its usual July window and is the largest youth soccer tournament in the Western Hemisphere, held each July at the National Sports Center, bringing an average of 25,000 people per day to Blaine. Stack those against the 3M Open and Blaine hosts three multi-day, national-scale events inside a five-week span.
The economic tail of that is worth stating in one place. The 3M Open alone has an estimated $50 million per year economic impact for the region, and USA Cup is responsible for an annual economic impact of $36 million. That is why the restaurants along 105th and Lexington keep summer staffing high, why hotel rates in the Twin Cities Gateway corridor climb through late July, and why the coffee shop line at 7:15 a.m. on a Thursday looks nothing like the same line in April.
A Quiet Week If You Want One
Not everyone wants to be in the middle of it. Two low-friction moves for residents skipping the tournament:
- Run east-west errands via 109th or 117th rather than crossing Radisson Road at 105th during shuttle hours.
- Book restaurant reservations for Monday or Tuesday. By Wednesday night the wait times reflect the pro-am crowd.
The tournament wraps Sunday evening. By Monday, July 27, the credentials come down, the shuttles stop, and the neighborhood inside the perimeter goes back to normal traffic patterns. The one week a year that Blaine looks a little different is short, well-organized, and, for residents who plan around it, one of the better reasons to live where you do.
If you're thinking about how a home near the tournament footprint holds its value across a week like this, or how proximity to the National Sports Center campus shapes buyer interest year-round, Maisa Olson offers appraisal-grade valuations and neighborhood analysis rooted in the east-metro. Book a free valuation consultation to start the conversation.
