Here are the key storylines about the first round of the Fortinet Championship.
NAPA, Calif. — After taking a much-needed seven-week break from the PGA Tour to hit the reset button, Lucas Herbert showed little rust on Thursday.
The 27-year-old Australian reeled off six straight birdies on the back nine at Silverado’s North Course to post 9-under 63, matching his career low and grabbing a two-stroke lead over S.H. Kim after the first round of the Fortinet Championship.
“Found a little groove there,” said Herbert, who just started practicing again less than two weeks ago. “It felt like anything I did poorly seemed to work out nicely for me and the good shots got rewarded as well.”
Herbert, who won twice in 2021, including his third start as a member on the PGA Tour, was mired in a slump last season that left him ranked 152nd in the FedEx Cup standings. With only the top 70 advancing to the Playoffs in August, Herbert shut his season down after missing the cut at the British Open in July.
“Golf’s been getting me down pretty hard this year. It was just a tough stretch there where I had a lot going on both in my life and on the golf course as well,” he explained. “I didn’t really want to think about golf or talk about golf for about a good month there, just needed to get away from the game and refresh everything. Yeah, it sucked, I’d love to be here or up on the FedEx Cup standings as we speak, but hopefully taking that good break, refreshing, have a little reset gives me a better chance to play well in the fall season and get some better results and get into the bigger events again next year.”
Herbert said he spent time in Maine, including meeting members of his girlfriend’s family for the first time, and enjoyed playing guitar and working on the home he bought in Orlando in March.
“I went and spent some time around people where I wasn’t the main focus of everyone’s life for the day. I was able to go and be a part of other people’s lives, which is something we don’t get to do as golfers,” he said. “I feel like coming here this week I was ready to play again. I think for a while there it felt like if my flight got canceled to a tournament and there was no other way to get there, I would have been happy to go home, like, oh, good a week off. I feel like if that happened this week, I would have been upset, I was ready to go. That sort of tells me I was back in a good frame of mind to be able to come out here and just deal with adversity when it comes on the golf course.”
Here are four more things to know about the first round of the Fortinet Championship.
Here’s a look at some of the hats, shirts and accessories for sale.
NAPA, Calif. – Spectators are having barrels of fun at the Fortinet Championship.
Set in the heart of wine country, Silverado Resort’s North Course is hosting the PGA Tour for the 10th time and have upgraded the fan experience this year, which includes concerts on Friday (Brothers Osborne and special guest Judah & The Lion) and Saturday night (Stone Temple Pilots and +Live+).
The merchandise tent, however, still feels like an afterthought. It’s one of the smallest on the PGA Tour and the offerings are pretty much run of the mill gear stamped with the title sponsor’s logo or that of Silverado Resort. In terms of creativity, it gets maybe half a star on the Uber scale.
Much of the gear for sale is Under Armour and Travis Mathew.
Here’s a look at some of the hats, shirts and accessories for sale.
Silverado’s routing was altered for this year’s Fortinet Championship, but we have it covered.
The North Course at Silverado Resort in Napa, California – site of the PGA Tour’s 2023 Fortinet Championship – originally was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1966. The course was redesigned by former PGA Tour star Johnny Miller in 2011.
The North Course will play at 7,123 yards with a par of 72 for this week’s Fortinet Championship.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
The course routing was greatly altered for this tournament, with 10 of the holes playing in a different order than is normal. The graphics for those holes show the hole number in a red circle, with that number representing that hole’s position for the tournament. The graphics below are in order for the tournament.
Everything you need to know for the first round at Silverado Resort.
After a two-week hiatus, the PGA Tour is back in business with the first event of its revamped FedEx Cup Fall series.
The 2023 Fortinet Championship is set to be held once again at the rebranded Silverado Resort in Napa, California, this week as Max Homa looks to join an exclusive group of players to three-peat at a PGA Tour event. Players will see a different side of Silverado’s North Course this year as the resort decided to change the routing for the tournament in order to produce more thrilling finishes.
Homa and Ryder Cup teammate Justin Thomas highlight the notable players in the field this week that will largely be comprised of players who finished outside last season’s FedEx Playoffs (Nos. 71 and lower on the standings). From the Fortinet to the RSM Classic, Nov. 16-19, players will battle to remain in the top 125 to retain their status for the new-look 2024 schedule.
Those who finished Nos. 51-70 in the FedExCup standings have already locked up their PGA Tour cards for next season but still have something to compete for: Nos. 51-60 in the standings after the RSM Classic will qualify for the first two Signature Events following the 2024 Sentry in Hawaii.
Winners of FedEx Cup Fall events still earn the same benefits as winning regular season tournaments, including a two-year exemption, spots in the Players, Sentry and major championships, not to mention 500 FedEx Cup points.
Simply put: there will be plenty of storylines to follow over the next two months as the Tour returns to action. Here’s everything you need to know for the first round of the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort.
Hayden Springer, Fred Biondi, Preston Summerhays (a)
3:05 p.m.
Taylor Pendrith, Callum Tarren, MJ Daffue
3:16 p.m.
Austin Cook, Austin Eckroat, Zecheng Dou
3:27 p.m.
Aaron Baddeley, Greg Chalmers, Geoff Ogilvy
3:38 p.m.
Akshay Bhatia, Justin Thomas, Sahith Theegala
3:49 p.m.
Nick Hardy, Mackenzie Hughes, Cam Davis
4 p.m.
Stewart Cink, Brendon Todd, Lanto Griffin
4:11 p.m.
Jimmy Walker, Doug Ghim, Dylan Wu
4:22 p.m.
Eric Cole, Taylor Montgomery, Davis Thompson
4:33 p.m.
Cameron Percy, Robby Shelton, Vince Whaley
4:44 p.m.
Adam Long, Sam Ryder, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
4:55 p.m.
James Hahn, Mark Hubbard, Justin Lower
5:06 p.m.
Michael Gligic, Augusto Núñez, Brent Grant
5:17 p.m.
Devon Bling, Blake Hathcoat, Chase Sienkiewicz
10th tee
Time
Players
9:55 a.m.
Sean O’Hair, Beau Hossler, Carson Young
10:06 a.m.
Ricky Barnes, Kevin Yu, Harrison Endycott
10:17 a.m.
Kevin Chappell, Will Gordon, Tyson Alexander
10:28 a.m.
Max Homa, Cameron Champ, Joel Dahmen
10:39 a.m.
Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar
10:50 a.m.
K.H. Lee, Andrew Putnam, Zach Johnson
11:01 a.m.
Kelly Kraft, Doc Redman, Andrew Novak
11:12 a.m.
Chris Stroud, Kyle Stanley, Scott Brown
11:23 a.m.
C.T. Pan, Jonathan Byrd, Greyson Sigg
11:34 a.m.
Ryan Armour, Cody Gribble, Charley Hoffman
11:45 a.m.
Satoshi Kodaira, Alex Noren, Matti Schmid
11:56 a.m.
Carl Yuan, Trevor Cone, Kevin Roy
12:07 p.m.
Peter Kuest, Henry Chung, Morgan Deneen
3:05 p.m.
William McGirt, Brian Stuard, Max McGreevy
3:16 p.m.
Tommy Gainey, Matthias Schwab, Harry Hall
3:27 p.m.
Sung Kang, Peter Malnati, Ben Taylor
3:38 p.m.
Robert Streb, J.B. Holmes, Troy Merritt
3:49 p.m.
Chez Reavie, Tyler Duncan, Scott Stallings
4 p.m.
Nico Echavarria, Jim Herman, Richy Werenski
4:11 p.m.
Martin Trainer, Kevin Streelman, Stephan Jaeger
4:22 p.m.
Russell Knox, Zac Blair, Kramer Hickok
4:33 p.m.
Ted Potter Jr., Chesson Hadley, Justin Suh
4:44 p.m.
Nate Lashley, Brice Garnett, Ben Crane
4:55 p.m.
S.Y. Noh, Nick Watney, Harry Higgs
5:06 p.m.
Scott Harrington, Tano Goya, Kyle Westmoreland
5:17 p.m.
Tom Johnson, Cyril Bouniol, Jacob Bergeron
How to watch, listen
All times listed are ET. ESPN+ is the exclusive home of PGA Tour Live. There is no PGA Tour Live coverage of the third and final rounds of the 2023 Fortinet Championship.
Trailing by one stroke on the final hole, Homa chipped in for birdie to steal the title.
Max Homa defended his title at the Fortinet Championship in stunning fashion.
Trailing by one stroke on the final hole, Homa chipped in for birdie and watched in amazement as leader Danny Willett took three putts from less than 4 feet.
“I don’t believe what I just saw,” Golf Channel announcer Terry Gannon said.
Neither could Homa, who closed in 4-under 68 at Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, California, and signed for a 72-hole total of 16-under 272. It was good enough for his fifth PGA Tour title and third in the Golden State.
“I still don’t know really know what happened,” Homa said. “The last three minutes are kind of a blur.”
On a cool, gusty, rainy day, Willett built a three-stroke lead early in the final round with birdies at Nos. 1, 4 and 8 but gave a stroke back with a bogey at the ninth. He pulled ahead again with an incredible birdie at 14, where he hooked his approach from behind a tree to 15 feet and canned the putt. Homa, a 31-year-old Cal-Berkeley grad, put up a valiant effort to defend his title, making three straight birdies beginning at No. 9.
“My coach (Mark Blackburn) said, ‘Just hang around, hang around, hang around,’ ” Homa recalled.
Homa did just that, and when he chipped in for birdie at 18 it forced Willett to hole from inside 4 feet for the trophy.
“I spun it and once it hit the pin, it almost like spun straight into the ground. It was just one of those things,” Homa said. “Golf’s a weird game, some crazy stuff happens on the last hole it seems like and that was very crazy.”
It was as clutch as clutch gets, and yet it didn’t appear to be enough until Willett hit his putt for the win too firmly and it lipped out. Willett’s miss of the 5-foot comebacker was even more shocking and gift-wrapped the trophy to Homa.
“This game never ceases to amaze me,” said Golf Channel’s Tom Byrum.
Rookie Taylor Montgomery shot a final-round 64 and finished alone in third. Justin Lower closed in 73, settling for a tie for fourth but notched his best career finish. Rickie Fowler, who tied for sixth, secured just his third top-10 finish in his last 59 starts. Making his first Tour start since the 2013 Wyndham Championship, a span of 3,315 days, Paul Haley II finishes T-12.
Homa’s second shot at the par-5 18th caught the left green side bunker, leaving himself an awkward 30-yard shot from the sand.
“I kind of had to assume he was going to make it and I kind of went for the hero bunker shot and didn’t quite catch it,” Homa said.
He exploded 33 feet short of the green before holing out for the eventual winning birdie.
“I expected him to do it,” Willett said, “but then it’s still a bit of a shock when it happens.”
For the week, the 34-year-old Englishman had holed more than 96 percent of his putts from inside 10 feet, including a clutch 9-foot par putt at 17 to maintain his lead. But his first putt from 4 feet rimmed out on the left side and he faced a longer par putt to force a playoff than his previous attempt. Willett was attempting to win his first PGA Tour title since the 2016 Masters, but it wasn’t to be.
“Just a shame how I finished but that’s golf,” Willett said. “Yeah, we’ll live to fight another day.”
Homa heads to his first appearance representing the United States on its 12-man team in next week’s Presidents Cup, a biennial team match-play competition against the world’s best 12 non-European players, with an extra boost of confidence.
“I’m just happy to be in form, to represent my country, play with those boys. They’re some good golfers, so I just wanted to come in in form,” he said. “I know this is Twitter, but I’ve had a lot of people tell me if the LIV guys wouldn’t have left, I wouldn’t have made the Presidents Cup team, so I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder this week.”
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.
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.
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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World Golf Hall of Famer and former lead analyst at NBC Sports Johnny Miller took a break from the Safeway Open to sit down with Golfweek.
When Johnny Miller first stepped foot on property at Silverado Resort to compete in the PGA Tour’s 1968 Kaiser International Open as an amateur, he could sense there was something special about the place.
“I liked the country, the courses, the open fields, the smells,” Miller said. “It felt like home.”
So much so that after turning pro and marrying wife Linda, they honeymooned at Silverado in one of the condos.
“One thing led to another and we bought a condo the next year on the sixth fairway of the North Course, then built a house in ’74 on the lake (at No. 11),” said Miller, who won the tournament there in 1974 and ’75, and has five of his kids born in Napa. “We thought we had the greatest spot in the whole world.”
In 2010, Silverado went on the market and Miller partnered to buy the California landmark, and then set about transforming it. “I saw what Silverado could become,” Miller said.
The World Golf Hall of Famer and former lead analyst at NBC Sports took a break from watching the Safeway Open to sit down with Golfweek and discuss a variety of topics. The conversation went so long that Miller finally asked, “What are we doing here, writing a book?” No, but we’ve decided to break the conversation into two parts. So, check back tomorrow for Part II of this Q&A when Miller talks about retirement, Tiger Woods and predicts the winner of the U.S. Open.
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GOLFWEEK: Have you become softer and less critical when you watch the PGA Tour now that you’re no longer in the broadcast booth?
JM: I don’t know if the word is critical. I see things that the other guys don’t see. When I see those things, I want to share them with the public. If it’s a crappy shot, it’s a crappy shot, it’s nothing personal. If I say it is a great shot, I want people to think, dang, Johnny, thought that was a great shot.
Like in the 2006 U.S. Open, we saw Phil (Mickelson) make two mental errors. You don’t have to play it like you’re on a white horse prancing up to the green. Pop it up there with a 3-iron, hit a 4-iron somewhere around the green, up and in or worst-case scenario you’re in a playoff. That was the biggest fall apart in that U.S. Open on the last hole in history. Harrington bogeyed the last three holes to lose by two. Furyk bogeyed the last hole. Mickelson made double bogey. Montgomerie got hosed, I thought. He had to wait for like 5 minutes. I thought he got such a bad break there. Then he chili-dipped it short of the green and didn’t get it up and in. Never has the last hole had so many scenarios. It was just incredible. That course is tough. Oakmont and Winged Foot must be the two toughest courses in tournament golf.
GW: What did you think of NBC reacquiring the U.S. Open broadcast rights?
JM: If I had known that, I might have gone another year. It wasn’t like I had to retire. I’m happy for them. I don’t know how committed Fox was, but NBC is turning out the guns to make it a fantastic Open. Tommy Roy and Tom Randolph are like savants when it comes to TV golf and they’ll make it back to where it should be.
GW: What did you think of Phil Mickelson’s guest appearance in the booth with CBS at the PGA Championship?
JM: They asked me who do you think could do a good job the way you like to see it done, and I said Tiger and Phil and I think Phil is even more outspoken. Both of those guys with their intellect and pedigree, Phil, I thought, was fabulous on TV. He’d probably like everyone to go home and he’d do all the jobs. Phil’s an amazing guy. He can talk. He doesn’t say, ‘In my opinion,’ but he can talk. All the great players are a little that way in they think they know it all and they make good decisions, which is a mark of a champion.
GW: What did partnering with Jack in the 1973 World Cup in Marbella, Spain do for your game?
JM: That was huge. Winning the U.S. Open in 1973 was fun and it was nice, but to play with Jack all week, and at that point I knew Jack was the best player and I held him on a bit of a pedestal and I thought he was way up here and I was down here. Whether it was youthful thinking, I started comparing every part of his game to mine. He hit it like 5 yards longer than me off the tee and he was maybe a little better than me with his long irons but I was definitely better from the 5-iron through wedge in my mind. It wasn’t even that close. I broke the course record on Friday and won the individual. To play with him that many days and beat him, it felt like my time had come. I opened the season and won the first three tournaments after that. The World Cup was the point where I thought my time has come.
NBC commentators Johnny Miller and Dan Hicks appear on set during the second round of the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie Golf Club on July 20, 2018. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
GW: Which year do you consider your best golf 1974 or 1975?
JM: 1974 was awfully good but the start of 1975, I was out-of-control good. I shot 49 under the first two weeks (Phoenix Open and Tucson Open), which is still a record. I won by 14 and by 9. I went to the practice tee at Phoenix and every shot was almost perfect. It was like what the heck is going on? It’s too bad the majors weren’t in January, February, March. My problem was I’d get bored easily. By the time the U.S. Open was over, I wanted to go fly fishing and go out on the ranch. If I had a weakness, it was that golf had a place in my life, but it wasn’t my whole life. I always liked fishing more than golf. But it was a good career.
GW: What clicked?
JM: You mean when I was winning a lot? I was just hitting the ball closer to the hole than everyone else. My iron game was really good. Every day I knew I was going to have at least two iron shots that were going to be gimmes. It’s nice to know you’re 2 under when you tee off. I was in my prime. Everyone has their prime. Nowadays, guys seem to have a three-year run and that’s pretty much it. Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, guys have these little runs – it’s still good but they lose the magic somehow. I don’t know if it is all the responsibility of being the best and the press, but part of you wants to go back to when people didn’t bother you too much. Some guys love it. Phil loves it. Arnold loved it. Billy Casper never really loved it.
GW: What golfer’s putting stroke do you wish you had?
JM: Tom Watson was the best I’d ever seen. He was uncanny. I would hit it inside of him 15 of 18 holes and he’d still beat me. He was like crazy good.
Part II of this Q&A with Johnny Miller will come to Golfweek on Tuesday.
