|
A mere three days after Dustin Johnson topped and tailed the 2019-20 season with his dominant victory in Monday’s Tour Championship, the 2020-21 campaign begins on the other side of the United States of America. The Safeway Open at Silverado Resort and Spa is a pleasant way for the circuit to kick off the action, lying plumb in the middle of the wine-rich Napa region of California. It half feels like the tournament is still a new one and yet in truth we now have plenty of information to make our assessments because this will be the seventh renewal. The greens at Silverado are a bent and Poa Annua mix, but unlike other California tracks there has been little evidence of specialists on them thriving – perhaps with the notable exception of Brandt Snedeker who held a 54-hole three-shot lead in 2018 before losing out to Kevin Tway in a three-man play-off. The course plays to a par of 72 with a yardage of 7,166 and was opened in 1955. Kevin Na says of the challenge: “It’s not a bomber’s course. You have to shape the ball, which I like doing. Short game is a big part of the game out here on this golf course.” His latter point is backed up by the stats (see below). Martin Laird added a fascinating insight: “With the course not being the longest golf course to play, there’s some tight pins on the front of the greens that some guys just can’t get to if you don’t hit it high. I hit it high. So coming in with mid irons, coming in landing soft is definitely a big advantage as opposed to maybe hitting a slightly longer club and coming in a little flatter.” Phil Mickelson remains convinced that, at the very least, you need to have got to grips with the Poa puzzle saying: "I think a lot of guys struggle with the poa annua greens, which is a grass that I grew up playing so I’m very comfortable on the greens. When you grow up and spend most of your time back east in Florida on the bermuda, this is a very awkward surface to putt on. The color looks different, it’s hard to sometimes read. But when you’re used to it, I don’t know of much better surfaces than these right here." Angles to consider 1/ Scrambling In the last two years whoever topped the Scrambling stats also topped the leaderboard (Cameron Champ and Kevin Tway). Two time winner Brendan Steele ranked seventh and fourth for that category during his wins, Emiliano Grillo was fifth and Sang-Moon Bae third. 2/ Par 4 Performances Four of the last five winners ranked top four on these holes and even the exception performed well enough to rank eighth. 3/ Texas Rangers Steele has also tasted success at San Antonio Oaks in the Texas Open and 2018 winner Tway has been third there. The other winners at Silverado haven’t played the Texas course, but take a look at the play-off losers: Brandt Snedeker T4th-T15th-T25th, Ryan Moore T3rd-T7th-T8th-T18th and although Kevin Na has missed half his cuts there he has recorded T11th and T20th.
Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Shane Lowry The importance of scrambling is an immediate tick in the box for the Irishman and there are other reasons to be enthusiastic about his chances. He has no course experience, but has twice made the top 20 at Torrey Pines and once at Pebble Beach so the Poa shouldn’t concern him (if that’s a factor) – he’s also finished T15th at San Antonio Oaks. Kevin Na’s talk of shaping the balls also helps – Lowry has always enjoyed doing that both on the links and among trees. Brandt Snedeker He ranks third for the Par 4s, ninth for Scrambling (he’s another who excels around the greens) and is on record as saying that he actually loves putting on Poa greens. Some would worry that he might have been stung by the squandered lead two years ago, but plenty of golfers bounce back from such experiences. His form wasn’t great this summer, but he made the cut at nearby San Francisco in the PGA Championship and carded a 65 at Sedgefield. Martin Laird We’ve already read that he knows his ball flight is a good fit for this test and the results back him up. He was third on debut, sixth at halfway a year later (albeit T64th by the end of the week), eighth in his third start and T17th after that. His last PGA Tour start landed a sixth, but that was back in February. He’s also eighth for Par 4s and 24th for Scrambling.
Tips: 0-3; -6.00pts 1.5pt e.w. Shane Lowry at 25/1 (BetFred, Betway 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) mc 1pt e.w. Brandt Snedeker at 40/1 (Boylesport 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) mc 0.5pt e.w. Martin Laird at 150/1 (SkyBet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) mc
|
