Tag: Fortinet Championship

Phil being Phil: Mickelson begins 31st PGA Tour season with an up-and-down round that was anything but boring

At the Fortinet Championship, Phil was Phil with some thrills, a few spills but it was oh, so entertaining.

The record shows that Phil Mickelson began his 31st season on the PGA Tour in Thursday’s first round of the Fortinet Championship.

His work over the 18 holes at Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa, California, however, was the same old, same old we’ve seen out of Mickelson the previous 30 years – an up-and-down journey en route to putting his signature to the scorecard.

In other words, a few thrills, a few spills. Phil being Phil. But oh, so entertaining.

In the end, he finished with a 2-under 70 that could have been a 66. With four birdies and two bogeys, he stood five shots behind clubhouse leader Chez Reavie.

Starting on the 10th hole, Mickelson, 51, hit all nine greens in regulation over his first nine and made three birdies. Coming home, however, he three-putted the second hole for bogey, then came right back by making a 20-footer for par on the third. His driver, however, started to let him down – he thought he hit two drives out of bounds, but both were safe.

“I stopped hitting fairways,” Mickelson said. “I hit a lot of fairways on the front and a lot of first cuts and had chances to be aggressive and played pretty well. I had a couple chances on the last couple holes to get it back to 3, 4, 5 under and finished at 2 unfortunately, but I thought it actually went all right.

“I’m making a few changes and my miss (with the driver) has gone from left to right and it’s a little bit different to adjust to. I thought that it went pretty well today with that in mind.”

Mickelson said this week won’t provide any indication as to how he will play during the 2021-22 season. But always the tinkerer throughout his World Golf Hall of Fame career (he was inducted nine years ago), whether with equipment, his body or swing, Mickelson is always working on something.

The most noticeable alteration in the first round was the putting method he was using – he locked the oversized grip of his putter against his right arm. Mickelson used this method earlier this year, starting in Memphis at the World Golf Championships-Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational.

He made some good par saves but missed a couple short birdie putts, made a couple long putts, and canned 84 feet of putts in all.

“I thought I putted really well,” said Mickelson, a winner of 45 PGA Tour titles, including six major championships. “The ones that I made, a lot of key four‑, five‑, six‑footers, and then the ones that were 20 feet, I had three or four that I thought I made and didn’t quite go in. So that’s good that the ball’s hunting the cup and tracking. Hopefully they’ll go in tomorrow.

“I’ve been messing with it for about six weeks. It takes a little getting used to, but it seems like I’ve had moments where I just start rolling it in from everywhere.”

Mickelson said that the Fortinet Championship could be his only PGA Tour start in the new season until 2022, though he will make an appearance on the PGA Tour Champions to play in the Furyk & Friends in Jacksonville, Florida, in October.

Next week in Whistling Straits at the 43rd playing of the Ryder Cup, Mickelson will be one of USA captain Steve Stricker’s five assistants; it will be the first Ryder Cup Mickelson won’t be playing in since making his debut in 1995.

Other than that, it seems Mickelson will have plenty of time to rest, relax and work on his game until he ramps up play in 2022. He’s certainly hoping to improve on his results from the last season.

Yes, he became the oldest player to win a major when he held off Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen to win the PGA Championship, which gave him the PGA Tour record for the longest time between his first victory – the 1991 Northern Telecom Open as an amateur – and his most recent – the 2021 PGA.

But his Wanamaker Trophy haul was his only top 10 in 23 starts. His only other top 20 was a tie for 17th in the 65-man field in Memphis. He missed nine cuts.

“During this offseason I really tried to take the time to dissect what I needed to work on,” Mickelson said. “Andrew (Getson, his coach) and I know where I need to go. I don’t want to wait, I just want to get started, so we’ve been getting started.

“Actually hit a lot of really good shots, and I think when I start to speed it up, I can’t really go fast because everything’s out of sync a little bit, but I’m hitting a lot of good shots at kind of a cruise speed.”

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What type of a vice captain will Phil Mickelson be next week? This story gives a hint

Phil Mickelson learned from Fred Couples at the Presidents Cup how to be a vice captain.

NAPA, Calif. – When U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Steve Stricker announced that Phil Mickelson would be one of his vice captains at the 43rd Ryder Cup, it was the end of an era.

Mickelson represented Team USA at his first international competition as a pro at the 1994 Presidents Cup and hadn’t missed a Ryder Cup since 1995 at Oak Hill. Despite his victory at the PGA Championship in May, Mickelson conceded that his game has lacked consistency. Still, it’s a rarity for a major winner not to make the team. In fact, the last American to win a major and be left off the Ryder Cup team was Todd Hamilton, who claimed the British Open in 2004.

What will Mickelson bring to the table as a vice captain next week? He answered by telling a story:

“I remember on the 18th hole at Memorial, the Presidents Cup in 2013, coming down the last match, we’re tied. I’m playing with Keegan, alternate shot. He’s up ahead of me walking with Captain Couples and I hit one in there about 12 feet. Keegan’s nervous and Fred puts his arm around him and says, ‘Isn’t this the best?’ Like this is the best moment, this is what we’re wanting to be, the position we’re wanting to be in, isn’t this fun?” Mickelson recalled. “Keegan, you could see him just kind of breathe again, knocks that putt in. Graham DeLaet holed a chip shot right in front of him, Keegan knocks it right on top of him for a tie. Captain Couples had – there’s been a lot of great captains, but that’s an example of one thing where a captain can make a difference on a player’s emotional state.”

Mickelson spent Sunday and Monday at Whistling Straits as part of Team USA’s course reconnaissance mission and said the trip was a good bonding experience.

“It’s fun to hang with the guys and to have that time together, but also to be able to now prepare for a week knowing what to expect, who you’re going to play with, golf balls, if you might change,” he said. “You have a week to get ready.”

Just don’t expect Mickelson to come out of the bullpen if the team needs a 13th man to replace an injured or ill team member.

“I don’t see that happening,” he said. “I mean, I’m hopeful that we’re all being responsible and staying safe and not having any COVID issues.”

Mickelson said that the Fortinet Championship will be his final PGA Tour start of 2021, though he will make an appearance on the PGA Tour Champions to play in the Furyk & Friends in Jacksonville, Florida, in October. Other than that, he enjoyed cracking jokes about the one-week layoff between the FedEx Cup finale in Atlanta and the start of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season this week. As he departed his press conference, he turned and said, “Everybody have a good year. Good to see you. Thanks for being here.”

Moments earlier, Mickelson laid it on even thicker saying, “after a long offseason, you don’t really know how your game is. You could be very rusty after this week off.”

He smiled that goofy Mickelson grin and added that he had work to do on his game. “I don’t want to wait another week,” he said, “I want to get started.”

PGA Tour rookies achieve their dreams, but can they keep their dream jobs?

Unlike some pro sports, there are no guaranteed contracts in professional golf.

NAPA, Calif. – Callum Tarren wondered when he might be getting his PGA Tour card.

The 30-year-old England native seemingly had worked a lifetime to gain admission to the big leagues. He finished tied for fourth at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship three weeks ago, a result that locked up one of the 25 PGA Tour cards given out in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with one event still remaining. But he skipped the ceremony a week later to fly home and spend time with his first child, Sofia, born two weeks earlier.

Tarren’s friend, David Skinns, a 39-year-old journeyman pro from England who spent time during golf’s pandemic shutdown as both a bartender and DoorDash driver to make ends meet before earning his card too, made sure Tarren received the grand symbol of Tour membership at the Fortinet Championship, the first of 48 tournaments that make up the 2021-22 PGA Tour season. Skinns marked his golf ball on the putting green with Tarren’s card during a practice round at Silverado Resort & Spa’s North Course.

Tarren and Skinns aren’t the only ones who have waited a long time to achieve their dream of playing on the PGA Tour. Justin Lower, 38, attended Q-School six times, missed earning his card by a single shot in 2018, and needed to pitch to a foot from 30 yards to save par at the final hole at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Indiana to secure the last card. Lower still wasn’t sure if he’d done enough until his fellow pros and caddies showered him with beer and champagne. When he finally grabbed hold of his coveted PGA Tour card, Lower said, “It’s heavier than I thought it would be.”

There are 27 rookies in this season’s class on the PGA Tour, the most since 2011 when 35 earned cards, and 26 of them are in the field this week (all but Matthias Schwab). Max McGreevy and Jared Wolfe are making their Tour debuts.

Some, like Aaron Rai, a 26-year-old Englishman who once holed a record 207 straight 10-foot putts at age 15, needed just three starts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to graduate while others such as Scott Gutschewski, 44, is returning to the big leagues full time for the first time since 2011. He made just two PGA Tour starts in the past 10 years. How did he celebrate his success? He went to Denny’s.

“It ain’t Applebees, but still pretty fancy,” he tweeted.

Hayden Buckley was the last man to get into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Lecom Suncoast Classic in February and then birdied the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to jumpstart earning his Tour playing privileges. Membership has its privileges. It also means having to play against the likes of World No. 1 Jon Rahm and PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson, who headline the field this week in Napa.

But there are no guaranteed contracts in professional golf. Stephan Jaeger is back for his third tour of duty. He was the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year, winning his sixth career title on the circuit, tied for second most all time, but he’s yet to record a top-10 finish in 62 starts on the PGA Tour. Still, he remains undeterred.

“I’ve done a lot over the last year and that’s given me a lot of confidence that like, ‘Hey, I can do this out here,’ ” he said.

Lower shares Jaeger’s never-give-up attitude. The 11-year-pro shed tears of joy when he finally secured the job he’d always dreamed of. This week marks the arrival at his destination, PGA Tour member, but the real work had just begun.

“It means everything,” he said, “and I don’t think this is it. I don’t think my journey is over at all. I think it’s just getting started.”

Nine days before Ryder Cup, Jon Rahm withdraws from Fortinet Championship pro-am with stomach issues

Jon Rahm was scheduled to tee off at 8:40 a.m. local time for a nine-hole pro-am then meet the media.

NAPA, Calif. – Jon Rahm withdrew from the pro-am Wednesday morning at the Fortinet Championship, citing stomach issues.

No word if the World No. 1 was simply sick to his stomach on being snubbed on Wednesday by his fellow pros who voted Patrick Cantlay as the PGA Tour Player of the Year Award.

Rahm originally was scheduled to tee off at 8:40 a.m. local time (11:40 a.m. ET), and do a press conference following his nine-hole pro-am. He begged out of the pro-am and pushed the press conference back to 2 p.m. Later, he canceled his press conference, and reportedly won’t be coming to the golf course at all on Wednesday.

Rahm, 26, is scheduled to tee off at No. 10 at Silverado Resort and Spa’s North Course at 7:44 a.m. local time in a threesome with Max Homa and Si Woo Kim.

FORNTINET: Thursday tee times, TV info | Fantasy golf | Odds, picks

This is the first time that a World No. 1 has competed here in wine country. The timing of Rahm’s illness isn’t ideal. He is expected to be one of the leaders of Team Europe’s effort to retain the Ryder Cup next week at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wisconsin. He played on the victorious side at the 2018 Ryder Cup, including defeating Tiger Woods in a singles match.

Rahm tested positive for COVID-19 twice last season. In June, he withdrew from the Memorial after the third round with a six-stroke lead. In August, he tested positive again ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

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Fortinet Championship tee times, TV info for Thursday’s first round

From tee times to TV and streaming information, here’s the lowdown on the Fortinet Championship.

The new PGA Tour season is officially here and if it feels like the 2020-21 super season just ended, that’s because it did. Just 11 days after Patrick Cantlay was crowned the Tour Championship winner and the FedEx Cup champion, the PGA Tour is ramping back up with the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California. The event was formerly known as the Safeway Open.

While several big names take a bit of downtime, including those who will play next week’s Ryder Cup, the field is highlighted by world No. 1 Jon Rahm (a European Ryder Cupper), recently-named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris, Cameron Champ (who won this event in 2019) and Max Homa.

From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s what you need to know for the first round of the Fortinet Championship. All times listed are ET.

Tee times

1st tee

Tee time Players
10:00 a.m. Peter Malnati, Bill Haas, Brandon Hagy
10:11 a.m. Michael Kim, Pat Perez, Jamie Lovemark
10:22 a.m. Ben Martin, Jonathan Byrd, J.J. Spaun
10:33 a.m. Michael Thompson, Webb Simpson, Emiliano Grillo
10:44 a.m. Brendon Todd, Lanto Griffin, Danny Willett
10:55 a.m. Andrew Landry, J.B. Holmes, Adam Long
11:06 a.m. Dylan Frittelli, Sung Kang, Martin Trainer
11:17 a.m. Ted Potter Jr., Chris Stroud, Peter Uihlein
11:28 a.m. Adam Hadwin, Scott Stallings, Luke List
11:39 a.m. Aaron Rai, Seth Reeves, Kurt Kitayama
11:50 a.m. Lee Hodges, Dylan Wu, Justin Suh
12:01 a.m. David Skinns, Lucas Herbert, Kevin Yu
12:12 a.m. Dawie van der Walt, Paul Barjon, Kristoffer Ventura
3:10 p.m. John Huh, Tom Hoge, Doc Redman
3:21 p.m. D.J. Trahan, Harold Varner III, Cameron Percy
3:32 p.m. Brendan Steele, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Maverick McNealy
3:43 p.m. Jim Herman, Sebastian Munoz, C.T. Pan
3:54 p.m. Hideki Matsuyama, Hudson Swafford, Matt Kuchar
4:05 p.m. Marc Leishman, Brandt Snedeker, Will Zalatoris
4:15 p.m. Scott Piercy, Chesson Hadley, Roger Sloan
4:27 p.m. Austin Cook, Adam Schenk, Matthew NeSmith
4:38 p.m. James Hahn, Vaughn Taylor, Denny McCarthy
4:49 p.m. Joseph Bramlett, Mito Pereira, Max McGreevy
5:00 p.m. Stephan Jaeger, Sahith Theegala, Greyson Sigg
5:11 p.m. Ben Kohles, Joshua Creel, Brandon Wu
5:22 p.m. David Lipsky, Hayden Buckley, Turk Pettit

10th tee

Tee time Players
10:00 a.m. Andrew Putnam, David Hearn, Kramer Hickok
10:11 a.m. Russell Knox, Patrick Rodgers, Sepp Straka
10:22 a.m. Kyle Stanley, Sean O’Hair, Talor Gooch
10:33 a.m. Kevin Na, Nate Lashley, Chez Reavie
10:44 a.m. Jon Rahm, Max Homa, Si Woo Kim
10:55 a.m. Cameron Champ, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Tway
11:06 a.m. Cameron Tringale, Hank Lebioda, Doug Ghim
11:17 a.m. Brice Garnett, Wyndham Clark, Harry Higgs
11:28 a.m. Danny Lee, Scott Brown, Nick Watney
11:39 a.m. Chase Seiffert, Nick Hardy, Taylor Moore
11:50 a.m. Scott Gutschewski, Adam Svensson, Cameron Young
12:01 a.m. Curtis Thompson, Justin Lower, Trevor Werbylo
12:12 a.m. Jared Wolfe, Callum Tarren, John Augenstein
3:10 p.m. Troy Merritt, Jason Dufner, Brian Stuard
3:21 p.m. Beau Hossler, Sam Ryder, Tyler McCumber
3:32 p.m. Ryan Moore, Bo Van Pelt, Kelly Kraft
3:43 p.m. Tyler Duncan, William McGirt, Kevin Stadler
3:54 p.m. J.T. Poston, Charles Howell III, Kevin Chappell
4:05 p.m. Nick Taylor, Patton Kizzire, Charley Hoffman
4:15 p.m. Ryan Armour, Jonas Blixt, Aaron Baddeley
4:27 p.m. Seung-Yul Noh, Mark Hubbard, Bronson Burgoon
4:38 p.m. Alex Smalley, Trey Mullinax, Davis Riley
4:49 p.m. Bo Hoag, Jim Knous, Josh McCarthy
5:00 p.m. Vincent Whaley, Austin Smotherman, Andrew Novak
5:11 p.m. Michael Gligic, Taylor Pendrith, Quade Cummins
5:22 p.m. Brett Drewitt, Chad Ramey, Michael Duncan

TV, streaming, radio information

You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV and CBS on the Paramount+ app. All times ET.

Thursday, Sept. 16

TV

Golf Channel: 6-9 p.m.

STREAMING

PGA Tour Live: 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

RADIO

PGA Tour Radio on SiriusXM: 3-9 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 17

TV

Golf Channel: 6-9 p.m.

STREAMING

PGA Tour Live: 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

RADIO

PGA Tour Radio on SiriusXM: 3-9 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 18

TV

Golf Channel: 6-9 p.m.

RADIO

PGA Tour Radio on SiriusXM: 4-9 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 19

TV

Golf Channel: 6-9 p.m.

RADIO

PGA Tour Radio on SiriusXM: 4-9 p.m.

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Why three-time Tour winner Cameron Champ’s biggest victory has been off the course

Cameron Champ knows he’s stood on many shoulders and accepted many helping hands to get to where he is and he wants to pay it forward through his foundation.

NAPA, Calif. – My goosebumps had goosebumps as I watched Cameron Champ win the 2019 Safeway Open (now known as the Fortinet Championship) at the Silverado Resort & Spa’s North Course. Champ, who grew up 60 miles away in Sacramento, played with a heavy heart as his Grandpa, Mack Champ, watched from the family home. “Pops,” as Cameron affectionately called him, had entered hospice for Stage IV stomach cancer, and died shortly thereafter.

It was Mack who bought Cam and his sister Madison their first sets of plastic clubs. (Madison is on the autism spectrum, which is why Cameron typically wears a baby-blue shirt on Sunday, the color of autism awareness.) Cameron was 2 ½ at the time he first wrapped his hands around a club, and it wasn’t long before Mack started taking his grandson to Foothill Golf Course in Sacramento. For $200 a year, Cameron could play as much golf as he wanted.

“After school we would go play as many holes as we could,” he recalled. “I still remember the push carts they had to the little snack shack they had.”

Two years ago, I was standing by the 18th green at the Safeway Open next to Champ’s father, Jeff, who held his cell phone in his left hand so Pops could hear the applause rain down from the crowd as Cameron wrapped up his second of now three PGA Tour titles. Jeff gritted his teeth, tightened every muscle in his body and attempted, by sheer will, to force the tears back into their ducts. But it was already too late. His long embrace on the green with his son reminded me of Tiger Woods hugging caddie Steve Williams and losing it on his shoulder at the British Open after Woods’s father had passed away in 2006. Just as on that day, there weren’t many dry eyes among those who witnessed this scene.

Champ is living to make Grandpa Mack proud and that means being a winner in his community. At 24, he launched his own foundation to give back and chose Foothill Golf Course, a par-3 course measuring 1,203 yards, as his initial project to give young people a safe haven to play and learn.

“We’ve been thinking about this since I was a kid,” Cameron told me at the time.

The foundation has a simple goal: to establish and promote youth mentorship and golf programs that foster an environment for academic achievement and healthy living for children from underserved and disadvantaged communities.

“We believe sport speaks to youth in a language they understand and when coupled with access to a safe and nurturing place to ‘play,’ sport can be a tool for positive change,” the Foundation’s boiler plate reads. “We believe in the power of education — that access to learning beyond-the-classroom (K-12) and access to college will unlock the potential in every child and significantly improve the odds of lifelong success. We believe in the power of mentoring – providing access to mentors not only helps the children today but creates learned behaviors that will enable children to make the world a better place. When this all comes together, we will fuel the dreams of the children we touch. Come walk with us!”

It’s a powerful message and one that got a huge lift on Monday when the Fortinet Championship, the inaugural event of the 2021-22 season and a new Tour partner, stepped up on Monday to support Champ with his family’s vision – it’s truly a family affair at the Cameron Champ Foundation – with The Walk with Us Cameron Champ Foundation Pro-Am, benefiting the Foundation in support of programs for underserved and underrepresented children in the Bay Area.

“It’s kind of like a dream,” Champ said. “It’s something that again we’re going to keep pushing as hard as we can in order for that dream to become a reality.”

Champ, who got his first taste of playing at Silverado in a junior all-stars competition and had Pops on the bag when he played The First Tee Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Poppy Hills Golf Course, also created the Mack Champ Invitational, a junior golf tournament, in Houston. He knows he’s stood on many shoulders and accepted many helping hands to get to where he is and he wants to pay it forward.

Since acquiring the management contract at Foothill in June 2019, he has set out to make it a place where children can learn not only to play golf but also get a healthy snack, help with their homework and just be kids. COVID-19 delayed some of the improvement measures they outlined, but he said, “everything is going in the proper directions that we want it to.”

“What Cameron and his dad are going to do is create opportunities,” Mack told Golf.com a year before he died. “There are kids in gangs, kids with no hope, and we want to try to get them into golf. Cameron knows if people didn’t give to him, he wouldn’t be where he is.”

That’s why he called yesterday’s fundraiser, “a huge steppingstone for us.”

“We’re trying to make a difference in as many ways as we can,” he added. “Obviously I’m only one person, my family’s only one family, my board is only one board, so we can only do as much as we can, but with the resources and with the people we have that are in support of us, we’re going to do everything we possibly can to help the kids, especially in my hometown.”

It is a victory that trumps all the trophies that have begun to pile up at home and likely all of the ones still to come.

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2021 Fortinet Championship fantasy golf power rankings and odds

Jon Rahm, once again, opens as the betting favorite – should he be a fantasy target?

Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California, hosts this week’s Fortinet Championship to begin the 2021-22 PGA Tour season. The event was previously known as the Safeway Championship and was won by Stewart Cink last year. Below, we look at the fantasy golf power rankings for the 2021 Fortinet Championship, with PGA Tour picks and predictions.

As usual this early in the season, the field this week is rather thin but is fronted by Golfweek/Sagarin‘s top-ranked golfer, Jon Rahm. The Spaniard is the only member of either of next week’s Ryder Cup teams in attendance for the Fortinet Championship and is a heavy betting favorite in the field of 156.

Also see: Fortinet Championship odds, picks and predictions

Silverado Resort measures 7,123 yards and plays to a par of 72. Cink won by two strokes last year at a record 21-under par.

2021 Fortinet Championship: Fantasy Golf Top 20

Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Odds last updated Tuesday at 11:50 a.m. ET.

20. Dylan Frittelli (+10000)

Tied for 25th in 2018 and for seventh in 2019 before skipping last year’s event. He was strong in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in both appearances and improved on and around the greens in his second stop in Napa.

19. Luke List (+10000)

Eighteen career rounds played at Silverado Resort with an average of 0.59 strokes gained on the field per round. Tied for fourth and fifth against largely comparable fields at the John Deere Classic and Barbasol Championship, respectively.

18. Harry Higgs (+8000)

Advanced to the BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup Playoffs with a T-15 finish at the Wyndham Championship and a T-16 at The Northern Trust. Finished alone in second here last year with great iron play.

17. Emiliano Grillo (+5000)

Twenty-two career rounds played at Silverado Resort are more than all but seven members of the field, and he has averaged 1.14 strokes gained per round. He tied for 29th last year but was fourth in the field with 1.56 SG: Approach.

16. Brendon Todd (+7000)

Led the PGA Tour in driving accuracy last season while hitting 75.25% of fairways. Missed the cut in his appearance at the Safeway Open in 2019 but has generally played well during the fall swing.

15. Chez Reavie (+5000)

Tied for third last year in finishing position and was solo third in SG: Approach. Also tied for the field lead with 28 career rounds at this venue and averages 1.20 total strokes gained on the field per round.

14. Brendan Steele (+9000)

Won back-to-back here in 2016 and 2017 at minus-18 and minus-15, respectively. Made the cut in each of his three appearances since, with a top finish of T-29 last year.

13. Maverick McNealy (+5000)

Missed the cut at Silverado Resort for the first time last year making the cut here in the three previous seasons.

12. Sebastian Munoz (+4000)

Finished his 2020-21 season with three straight top-30 finishes at the Wyndham Championship, The Northern Trust and the BMW Championship before being knocked out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Tied for fourth at the John Deere Classic in the field most comparable to this week.

11. Max Homa (+5000)

Poor history in this event with most recent finishes of T-60 and T-62 in 2018 and 2019, respectively. That said, he spent most 2021 inside of the top 40 of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) with a victory and four other top-10 finishes on the calendar year while playing the best golf of his career.

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10. Si Woo Kim (+4000)

Usually struggles with the putter but played well on the greens each of the last two years at Silverado Resort and always has a strong short game.

9. Harold Varner III (+4000)

Tied for third in this field with 24 rounds played at Silverado Resort and has averaged 0.92 total strokes gained per round. Finished T-29 last year following back-to-back top-20 finishes at the Safeway Open.

8. Cameron Champ (+4000)

The 2019 winner of the Safeway Open didn’t defend his title last year. He led the field with 2.88 SG: Tee-to-Green and 1.67 SG: Off-the-Tee per round in his victory.

7. Marc Leishman (+4000)

Has played this event twice with a third-place finish in 2019 in his first appearance since 2014. He struggled with the driver last season but remains strong on approach and with the putter.

6. Hideki Matsuyama (+2000)

Missed the cut in his last appearance at the Safeway Open in 2019 but has still averaged 1.54 strokes gained per round over 10 career rounds at this venue. His 0.74 SG: Approach per round for the 2020-21 season rank third in this field.

5. Webb Simpson (+1500)

Left out of Ryder Cup consideration after slipping from the sixth to 22nd in the OWGR over the course of 2021, but he finished the 2020-21 season strong with a T-7 at the Wyndham Championship and a T-12 at the BMW Championship.

4. Cameron Tringale (+3000)

Twenty-four career rounds played at Silverado Resort. Missed the cut last year after a streak of three straight weekend appearances at the Safeway Open. Made cut against similar strengths of field in four of five events on the fall swing last year.

3. Kevin Na (+2000)

Lost in a playoff here in 2015 and has averaged 1.68 strokes gained per round over 14 career rounds at Silverado Resort. His 35th-ranked driving accuracy and top-ranked SG: Around-the-Green are well-suited to this venue.

2. Will Zalatoris (+2000)

The newly crowned PGA Tour Rookie of the Year will look for his first win in his first event as a full-time Tour member. He has five top-10 finishes on the year and has rarely played in fields this thin.

1. Jon Rahm (+350)

Missed out on the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year award but led the Tour with 2.62 total strokes gained on the field. The only concern is an early exit to head to Whistling Straits for the Ryder Cup.

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2021 Fortinet Championship odds, picks and PGA Tour predictions

A look at the Fortinet Championship odds and with picks and predictions to win from sportsbookwire.com.

The 2021-22 PGA Tour season begins at Silverado Resort and Spa for the newly-named Fortinet Championship.

The event was previously known as the Safeway Open and was won by Stewart Cink last season.

Below, we look at the 2021 Fortinet Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.

The field is led by Jon Rahm, who sits atop the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and is fresh off a runner-up finish for the 2021 FedEx Cup. Webb Simpson, Hideki Matsuyama, Kevin Na and Will Zalatoris are also among this week’s favorites but the field thins out quickly ahead of next week’s Ryder Cup.

2021 Fortinet Championship picks – Favorite

Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds a full list. Lines last updated Monday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

Will Zalatoris (+3000)

Zalatoris was named the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year for the 2020-21 season Monday and will now look to secure his first PGA Tour win in his first event as a full-time member.

The 25-year-old Wake Forest grad has five top-10 finishes in 2021, including a runner-up at the Masters and T-8 at the PGA Championship, but failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs without a win. He makes his debut at Silverado Resort after ranking second in this field to Rahm in Strokes Gained: Approach for the 2020-21 season.

He’s also the third-best player in the field by the Golfweek rankings but shares the fourth-best odds as a slight value. Rahm’s the rightful betting favorite, but he must be faded at +400 and while looking ahead to the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.

2021 Fortinet Championship picks – Contender

Brendan Steele (+9000)

Steele’s 28 career rounds played at Silverado Resort are tied for the most in this field, and he has averaged 1.41 total strokes gained per round. He won the Safeway Open at this venue in 2018 and didn’t miss the cut in three appearances since.

The +9000 odds represent great value on a recent winner who had two top-10 finishes against much stronger fields than this last season.

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2021 Fortinet Championship picks – Long shot

Luke List (+10000)

List has four top-10 finishes in 2021 but remains without a Tour victory.

He tied for fourth at the John Deere Classic and for fifth at the Barbasol Championship in back-to-back events in mid-July but was eliminated from the FedEx Cup Playoffs with a 70th-place finish at the Northern Trust.

List has long been known for his struggles with the putter, but he’s one of the leaders from the 2020-21 season in SG: Off-the-Tee in this field. He gained 0.71 strokes per round on the greens in a T-4 finish at Silverado Resort in 2019 and can hope to recapture that magic at 100-1.

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Early look at 2021-22 PGA Tour schedule: Season starts Sept. 16 in Napa. For now.

While there’s been no official announcement, the fall portion of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season can be pieced together.

The 3M Open this week in Blaine, Minnesota, marks the 44th event out of the 50-event 2020-21 super-season. That means time is running out for players to qualify for the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs that culminate at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, Sept. 2-5.

That also means the 2021-22 season is right around the corner. While the PGA Tour hasn’t announced the official schedule yet, it sent a draft of the upcoming fall portion of the season to players recently – as first reported by Golf Channel.

Much of the schedule is publicly available at the various tournament websites. It appears that there may be a one-week offseason as no event is currently scheduled for the week of September 6-12, though Golf Channel cited “sources” saying the Tour could “slide a new event into that spot.”

The new season is expected to begin in Napa, California, at the newly named Fortinet Open, Sept. 16-19, at Silverado Resort. The following week is the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

The next full-field events will be the Sanderson Farms Championship, where Sergio Garcia is the defending champion, Sept. 30-Oct. 3, and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Oct. 7-10, in Las Vegas.

This is where things get a bit murky. In a COVID-free world, the Tour would embark on a three-week visit to Asia for the CJ Cup in South Korea, the Zozo Championship in Japan and the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. Last year, the first two relocated to the U.S., while the latter was canceled. The global pandemic likely will wreak havoc with the Asian Swing.

According to Golf Channel: “One person with knowledge of the negotiations said that the CJ Cup is looking into venues in the U.S. again, but the other two events in Asia likely wouldn’t relocate to the U.S., meaning some players would likely be reluctant to travel because of the pandemic.”

Another potential dilemma? There’s only a two-week window in the calendar based on the Bermuda Championship website touting its tournament being held Oct. 28-31. The newly named Worldwide Technology Championship at Mayakoba is scheduled the following week, Nov. 4-7. Then the Tour wraps up the fall portion of the schedule stateside at the Vivint Houston Open, Nov. 11-14, and the RSM Classic, Nov. 18-21.

Dates Event
Sept. 9-12 Off week
Sept. 16-19 Fortinet Open (formally Safeway Open)
Sept. 24-26 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits
Sept. 30-Oct. 3 Sanderson Farms Championship
Oct. 7-10 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
Oct. 14-17 CJ Cup?
Oct. 21-24 Zozo Championship?
Oct. 28-31 Bermuda Championship
Nov. 4-7 Worldwide Technology Championship at Mayakoba
Nov. 11-14 Vivint Houston Open
Nov. 18-21 RSM Classic