The sports news you need to know for July 21, 2022

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: The twins are off, but that doesn't mean there is a dearth of sports news happening. The 3M open golf tournament is underway at the TPC in Blaine. Minnesota United beat the English Premier League's Everton last night in an exhibition game.

The Minnesota Aurora women's soccer team is prepping for a championship match this weekend. With more on these tidbits and other sports stories, Wally and Eric are here. Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and a host of 10,000 Takes sports show heard on radio stations around the state and seen on Twin Cities TV.

Eric Nelson is the co-host of 10,000 Takes and the Vikings reporter for CBS radio's Eye on the NFL. Hey, guys, how are you guys doing?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Good, Kathy, how are you?

CATHY WURZER: I'm fine. Thank you. Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Are you here too?

ERIC NELSON: Good afternoon, Kathy.

CATHY WURZER: Good afternoon.

ERIC NELSON: Good to be on.

CATHY WURZER: I'm assuming you guys are in Blaine. Is that right?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I'm here. I know Eric is on his way. And obviously, as you mentioned a few moments ago, it's underway. The 3M open is underway. Currently, the leader is Scott Piercy. He is at six under along with Sung-jae Im. Both of those at six under par.

The defending champion, Cameron Champ, he is teeing off right now, as a matter of fact, along with another former champion, Michael Thompson. So two of the three previous champions in this tournament teeing off, and they will be playing in the same group.

Nice crowd on hand so far, and of course, obviously, the skies are blue, and there's no rain in sight. So that's a good piece of weather tidbit that I'm sure the folks out here are happy about Cathy because, when we were out here last year-- Eric and I were out here last year doing some radio work-- we got shuttled into cover areas because there were storms coming. And they had all kinds of issues. So hopefully, the rain holds off.

CATHY WURZER: So Eric, isn't this a pretty big deal?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, it's a huge deal, especially in Minnesota, which lobbied for years to become part of the PGA tour. This is the 43rd stop on the tour. The season begins late in 2021 and, obviously, goes deep into 2022. So if you look at the purse, the payout for the 3M open, than the fourth edition, it's $7.5 million. And the winner will pocket $1.35 million. So it's like winning the golf lottery. And it sounds like a lot, and it is. But that's really 18% of the total payout, and that's the PGA standard.

So if you can win a couple of tournaments in a year, you're in good shape. Now, as far as what this does for Blaine and the North Metro and the Twin Cities, it's expected to pump in $50 million of economic impact. There could be up to 150,000 golf fans flocking to the course.

It really began earlier in the week with things like a pro-am, as Wally said, the actual competition begins today. They will crown a champion on Sunday. So if the weather holds up, and it should, there's going to be a lot of people at TPC.

And one other thing, Blaine is a little bit of a sports Mecca in some ways because you have the World Cup soccer, the largest youth tournament on the globe. And that just happened a couple of weeks ago. So Blaine will take your money and smile when they do.

CATHY WURZER: Say, Wally, before we go on to some other topics here, given that the Twin Cities is now in a drought, how does the course look?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, it's dry, obviously, and it'll play fast. That's for sure. But from what we saw-- I walked around the course yesterday-- it looked good. They do such a great job out here.

One other thing I wanted to point out that we didn't mention, there are several guys that are missing from this tournament this year--

CATHY WURZER: That's right.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: --that have played here in the past. They're playing in that Saudi 54 tournament, the L-I-V, so to speak, including big names like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, who played here last year, Brooks Koepka. These are all guys that have played in this tournament in its four-year history. And none of them are here because they're getting paid big money by the Saudis to play in that 54 tournament.

CATHY WURZER: All right, let's move on to the twins. As I mentioned, they're off until what, Saturday?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Correct, yeah, it's an odd schedule for them. They have a number of days off coming up, including Friday. Most of Major League Baseball gets back underway off the all-star break on Friday. But the twins are off until Saturday. They travel to Detroit. Detroit is wallowing in misery again this year. Eric had them winning the division, I think. But they've been terrible again. So don't take your money to Las Vegas with anything he says. That's for sure.

But as far as the twins go, they're trying to hold off both Cleveland and the White Sox. Cleveland two games behind. Chicago three games behind the twins. And the question now becomes, as we get towards the end of July and into the first part of August, when the trade deadline comes up, will the twins make a move? Will they try-- look, they've got Carlos Correa that they spent $35 million on this year. That's his salary, one year.

So if you're going to spend that kind of money on a guy, you would think that you would go out and try to supplement a playoff run. And they're going to need to do it by the first week of August. The flip side of that is that maybe they trade him and get some assets that they can use in the future. But I don't think that they're going to do that. I think that they're going to add a piece or two. I think that they're going to-- they need to add pitching is what they need. Certainly a starter, and most definitely a relief pitcher.

CATHY WURZER: Eric.

ERIC NELSON: Well, the good news this week, if you're a Twins fan, is that in that all-star game Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles-- and I know a lot of people apparently didn't watch. It got some record low ratings, only 7.51 million viewers on Fox. But that's still a few eyeballs.

So if you did tune in, you saw Luis Urias, one of the twins all-star reps, get a single in the game. He played a lot of innings. And how about Byron Buxton? You had to be happy for Byron because of all the injuries he's battled and had to overcome in his star-crossed 10-year career.

So in his first ever all-star game, he connected. He hit a home run 420 plus feet into the left field pavilion at Dodger Stadium, and it gave the American League a 3-2 lead. They wind up winning the game, their ninth straight victory in the all-star game.

So for Byron Buxton a little bit of a personal coming out party on a national stage. And hopefully, he's able to play the rest of this regular season and if they make the playoffs into the postseason as well. But I think Byron's star was shining bright amongst a galaxy of stars out there in SoCal.

CATHY WURZER: I was among those who did not watch. OK, so let's talk about-- sorry.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: There's a shock.

CATHY WURZER: I know. Since July, kind of mid-July already, let's talk the NFL. Vikings training camp starts.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, I know. It's just-- and I love the NFL during the regular season. But it's all the other stuff. It's the mid-February to September 1st stuff that I could-- personally, I could ignore. But training camp does open July 30 at the TCO Performance Center.

This will be the 62nd training camp in team history for the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, this is all out in Eagan now, no longer Mankato, as you know. But what's new this year, of course, is new head coach in Kevin O'Connell, new general manager, plenty of new names on the squad this year.

We'll see how it shakes out. But they're going to get underway before you know it, and we'll be talking football with you just about every week from now until the middle of February.

CATHY WURZER: Great. Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Well, well, one thing I do know, Cathy, Kevin O'Connell, the new head coach for the Vikings, and their GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, they don't listen to Wally because the other day on our 10,000 Takes radio show, he lobbied high and hard for Minnesota to bring Kyle Rudolph back home, right?

No, not going to happen. Kyle Rudolph, who spent 10 seasons with the Vikings, one with the New York Giants, played in two Pro Bowls, 49 career touchdown catches, he's going to join TB12 in Tampa Bay. That would be Tom Brady. So Kyle Rudolph has a new home, and Gronk, Rob Gronkowski he has retired. So the Buccaneers feel like he's going to be a good fit with their other tight end Cameron Brate.

But congrats to Kyle Rudolph because the one thing missing on his resume is a Super Bowl ring. And no offense to the Purple Nation, but I think you probably have a better chance with Tom Brady than you do with Kirk Cousins.

CATHY WURZER: Even I know that.

ERIC NELSON: Just a hunch.

CATHY WURZER: Just a hunch. Say, before you guys go, let's talk Minnesota United. Wally, that was kind of an interesting exhibition match last night.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, they played against Everton. They play in the English Premier League. They beat them 4 to 0. They had a 2-0 lead at half, and then an 0 and goal. In other words, Everton knocked it in their own net for one of the second half goals, and Minnesota wins 4-0 over Adrian Heath's old squad.

Now Adrian Heath, the head coach of Minn-U, he played back in, I want to say it was the late 70s into the early 80s, for Everton. So they bring them in here to Minneapolis. Although, I got to tell you. I've talked to some folks within the organization. And the timing of this wasn't really great.

I think that the players would have preferred not having this on the schedule right now, and it's kind of odd. They do that in the MISL. They'll play these odd games against teams from wherever. And this one, of course, from England. But they want it, and I guess that's the important thing at this point.

CATHY WURZER: And Eric, looks like the Loons are on a five-game, unbeaten streak.

ERIC NELSON: They are. They are as hot as the weather right now. They're up to the number four seed in the MLS West. They have 31 points. And they will travel to Houston. You think it's hot here? Try playing soccer in Houston, Texas in mid to late July. That is an outdoor sauna. They don't play inside, folks. It's outside.

So it's bring a lot of Speed Stick, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. They're going to be drenched. But it's a team on paper, they should beat Houston is the 11th seed. So another big one for Minnesota United.

CATHY WURZER: You guys are great. Enjoy the golf, by the way. Thanks Wally and Eric.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: We will.

ERIC NELSON: [INAUDIBLE]

CATHY WURZER: Be careful. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the host of 10,000 Takes sports show heard on radio stations around the state. Eric Nelson is the co-host of 10,000 Takes and the Vikings reporter for CBS radio's Eye on the NFL. They're our sports guys.