The Safeway Open in Napa, Calif. falls between last week’s Tour Championship FedExCup playoff finale and next week’s rescheduled US Open across the country at Winged Foot. The Safeway tournament is the first event of the 2020-21 PGA Tour season, and fans will continue to be sidelined and not in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, the Safeway Open loses some star players with the US Open on deck. Last year several top-ranked pros – like Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay – played in the Safeway Open, but none will return in 2020.
Mainly sunny skies and mid 80s temperatures with light winds are in the advance weather forecast as the players fire for birdies and greens at the Silverado Resort and Spa North Course.
A lack of top-ranked golfers and popular players will keep this event under the radar and likely be the least-bet event since the Tour restart in June. The PGA will also be up against the opening weekend of the 2020 NFL season.
Safeway Open odds
Phil Mickelson and Si Woo Kim opened as the co-favorites at +2200 at DraftKings Sportsbook. Here is a look at more Safeway Open odds.
Phil Mickelson | Bet now +2200 | Bet now +2000 |
Si Woo Kim | Bet now +2200 | Bet now +2200 |
Brendan Steele | Bet now +2600 | Bet now +2500 |
Joel Dahmen | Bet now +2800 | Bet now +2500 |
Sergio Garcia | Bet now +2800 | Bet now +2800 |
Jordan Spieth | Bet now +3000 | Bet now +3000 |
Harold Varner III | Bet now +3000 | Bet now +2500 |
Shane Lowry | Bet now +3300 | Bet now +3000 |
Emiliano Grillo | Bet now +3500 | Bet now +3000 |
Chez Reavie | Bet now +3500 | Bet now +3300 |
Kevin Streelman | Bet now +4000 | Bet now +4000 |
Cameron Davis | Bet now +4500 | Bet now +4000 |
Luke List | Bet now +4500 | Bet now +7000 |
Doc Redman | Bet now +4500 | Bet now +3000 |
Brandt Snedeker | Bet now +4500 | Bet now +4500 |
Erik van Rooyen | Bet now +4500 | Bet now +3300 |
Talor Gooch | Bet now +5000 | Bet now +4500 |
Mark Hubbard | Bet now +5000 | Bet now +5000 |
Denny McCarthy | Bet now +5000 | Bet now +8000 |
Sam Burns | Bet now +5500 | Bet now +3500 |
Bud Cauley | Bet now +5500 | Bet now +4000 |
Tyler Duncan | Bet now +5500 | Bet now +5500 |
Henrik Norlander | Bet now +5500 | Bet now +6600 |
Keegan Bradley | Bet now +6000 | Bet now +5000 |
Lucas Glover | Bet now +6000 | Bet now +6600 |
View all Tour Championship odds at DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM.
Top golfers in the Safeway Open
A majority of the top PGA Tour pros take this week off following a grueling run through the FedExCup Playoffs. But there are some notable players that committed to play in Napa for the first time including major winners Jordan Spieth, Shane Lowry and Sergio Garcia. Also, major winners Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk will play, and Furyk finished top-20 in last season’s Safeway event while Mickelson missed the cut but finished T3 three seasons ago. Matt Kuchar is the highest ranked player in the field at No. 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings. Lowery is No. 28, Garcia is No. 44, Kevin Streelman No. 46, Erik van Rooyen is ranked No. 47 and playing in the event for the first time and Mickelson is No. 49.
Last season’s Safeway winner Cameron Champ is not returning, and he was the only player to shoot all four rounds in the 60s in 2019. Champ won by one shot with a 271 total (17 under par). Here are the the top finishers from last year’s tournament who are playing in the event.
- Zac Blair (T4)
- Cameron Percy (T7)
- Zinjun Zhang (T7)
- Nick Watney (T10)
- Mark Hubbard (T13)
- Roger Sloan (T13)
- Jim Furyk (T17)
- Brandt Snedeker (T17)
- Brian Stuard (T17)
- Harold Varner (T17)
Kevin Tway is playing this week and he won the 2019 season event (October 2018) in a playoff over Brandt Snedeker and Ryan Moore. Harold Varner has back-to-back top-20 finishes as he tied for 14th place in that event. Also, JB Holmes is playing this week and he finished T9 in that 2019 event but did not play a year ago.
Additional PGA Tour winners in the field this week include: Jimmy Walker, Jason Dufner, Charl Schwartzel, Keegan Bradley, Kevin Streelman, Chez Reavie, Troy Merritt and two-time Safeway Open winner Brendan Steele (2017, 2018). Lucas Glover is also playing this week and is +6000 at DraftKings.
Course and tournament information
- Course: Silverado Resort and Spa (North Course)
- Location: Napa, CA
- Date: Sept. 10-13, 2020
- Par: 72 / Yardage 7,166
- Purse: $6.6 million / Winner $1.1 million
- Fairways/Rough: Bermudagrass and Poa Annua / Bluegrass and ryegrass
- Greens: Bentgrass and Poa annua
- TV: Golf Channel and NBC (Sat-Sun)
- Live Streaming: NBCSports.com/live, NBC Sports App and PGA Tour Live
- Twitter: @SafewayOpen
Located in wine country about 90 miles North of San Francisco, the North course gem at Silverado Resort and Spa has become very popular with the players since the event moved to Silverado in 2015. Ben Harmon was the course architect in 1955 and Robert Trent Jones (1966) and Johnny Miller (2011) were the architects of renovation projects.
Miller and an investment group owns the two courses at Silverado, and the North course greens were all revamped and bunkers were added. The fairways were realigned, oversized trees cut back and streams and more water features added. The grasses were replaced to original mix of rye and Kentucky bluegrass condition. The greens are undulating and fast, which Miller says makes it a better course.
Difficulty lies in hitting fairways, which ranked fourth hardest on Tour last year with just 53.65% of fairways hit. Brendan Steele was top-5 in driving accuracy the two years he won the event.
As you watch and wager on the event, look for the toughest and easiest holes. The Par 4 at hole No. 13 ranked as the toughest Par 4 in last year’s event. But the two long Par 3s at hole No. 2 and No. 7 were two of the three toughest scoring holes on the course. Both Par 3s had a bogey percentage of 21.4% while hole No. 13 had a bogey percentage of 20.8% and the Par 4 at hole No. 4 was 20%. Approach shots from 200 or more yards is key to player’s success this week as well and a stat worth studying.
The easiest hole on the course is the Par 5 at hole No. 5 with a scoring average of 4.62 and 44.4% of the players making birdie. The other three Par 5’s are the next easiest scoring holes and yielded birdies to players at least 34.5% of the time.
Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green is a stat of significance this week. Of the players returning from last year’s event, Xinjun Zhang (T7) and Cameron Percy (T7) were the only ones in the top-10. Cameron Champ ranked No. 1 and he won the event. Strokes Gained: Scrambling, Around the Green and Putting are worth reviewing when wagering. Zac Blair ranked No. 1 in the field in putting last year with Nick Watney and Mark Hubbard top-5.
