Damien Kayat previews this week’s Safeway Open taking place at the Silverado Resort and Spa’s North Course.
Safeway Open | 4 October – 7 October | The North Course, Silverado Resort and Spa
The Safeway Open marks the beginning of the wraparound portion of the 2018/2019 campaign. Considering that Phil Mickelson is the only Ryder Cupper active this week, it also presents the tour with the opportunity to take a deep breath and distance itself from the rather tepid display in Paris. Formerly known as the Frys.com Open, this event’s inception came as recently as 2007 and this will be the sixth time that the Safeway will kick off the PGA Tour campaign. Brendan Steele returns in an attempt to pull off an amazing three-peat while ‘Lefty’ aims to silence his critics.
This event was hosted at Grey Hawk in Arizona for three years before transitioning to California. Its first destination was Cordevalle, where it spent four years. It switched to Silverado in 2014, making this the fifth consecutive hosting of the event at the North Course. Robert Trent Jones Jr designed North Course is a fairly classical, tree-lined test. The fairways are quite narrow while the smallish greens will run at about 11.5 on the stimp- quite slow by PGA standards. The Poa-Annua greens will provide a decent test for the golfers on a course that’s statistically hard to pinpoint.
While Brenden Steele will be in attendance to try make it three in a row at Silverado, all eyes will be firmly fixed on Phil Mickelson in the wake of yet another disastrous Ryder Cup for the 48-year-old. It will be interesting to see how Mickelson comes out considering that he was a central figure in much of the criticism at Le Golf National. Patrick Cantlay leads the markets while Brandt Snedeker will be looking to cash in while many of the big guns rest. There will be many new faces as inductees from the Web.com Tour attempt to navigate the waters of the PGA Tour proper, which always makes for fascinating viewing.
Past Winners
2017: Brenden Steele (-15)
2016: Brenden Steele (-18)
2015: Emiliano Grillo (-15)*playoff
2014: Sang-moon Bae (-16)
2013: Jimmy Walker (-17)
To Win Outright:
Patrick Cantlay 14/1 | Brandt Snedeker 20/1 | Ryan Moore 22/1 | Joaquin Niemann 25/1 | Phil Mickelson 25/1
Value Bets
Scott Piercy- To Win 80/1, To Place 17/1
This is just the sort of tournament that a solid- if unremarkable- player like Piercy can exploit. Not blessed with any single weapon of mass destruction, Piercy is a solid tee-to-green type who relies on fairly accurate iron-play, ideally suited for this course and field. He had a poor year after winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April. But perhaps a return to California will bolster Piercy. His last two finishes here were a tie for sixth at the CareerBuilder and a tie for 20th at Pebble Beach. He also finished third here in 2016, setting a course record 62 in the opening round. He clearly has a penchant for Poa Annua greens and had a decent tie for 17th finish last year.
Sungjae Im- To Win 90/1, To Place 19/1
I’m opting for the talented Korean amongst the bunch of Web.com debutants. The Korean star from the Japan Tour stormed to victory in his first event on the Web.com Tour in the Bahamas. He almost won the next week, narrowly missing out to Svensson. His year was fairly erratic after that, with six missed cuts and many top 10’s. That included runner-up finishes at the Knoxville Open and the Pinnacle Bank Championship. He also recently claimed his second victory on the Web.com Tour in Portland. He is extremely talented and could be a contender in a slightly reduced, post-Ryder Cup field.
The Man to Beat- Joaquin Niemann- To Win 25/1, To Place 11/2
This young Chilean looks set to be a superstar. There has been something of a curse for promising South American players in recent years, with both Camillo Villegas and former Safeway Open champion Emiliano Grillo not truly fulfilling their mammoth potential. Niemann made his debut at the 2018 Valero Texan Open and finished in solo sixth. He picked up a further three top 10’s and six top 25’s throughout the season, not being able to compete in the FedEx Cup Playoffs due to his lack of a full-time PGA Tour card. He now possesses his card and he should be well rested since his last competitive action was the Wyndham Championship.
