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Safeway Open: Top 10 power rankings for Silverado CC

By Mike Randleman

NAPA, CA - OCTOBER 06: Brandt Snedeker plays his shot from the 18th tee during the third round of the Safeway Open at the North Course of the Silverado Resort and Spaon October 6, 2018 in Napa, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
NAPA, CA - OCTOBER 06: Brandt Snedeker plays his shot from the 18th tee during the third round of the Safeway Open at the North Course of the Silverado Resort and Spaon October 6, 2018 in Napa, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /
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VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: Francesco Molinari of Italy plays his second shot on the 4th hole during Day 4 of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club on September 22, 2019 in Virginia Water, United Kingdom. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)
VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: Francesco Molinari of Italy plays his second shot on the 4th hole during Day 4 of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club on September 22, 2019 in Virginia Water, United Kingdom. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images) /

Francesco Molinari has played PGA Tour events for years but only became a full-time member in 2018-19. The Italian is playing more and more stateside, and that includes smaller events like this.

The 2018 Champion Golfer of the Year is making his Safeway Open debut.

He’s won some big events in the past couple of years at the Open, the 2018 BMW Championship, in a romp over Tiger and the field at the 2018 Quicken Loans National and at the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The 36-year-old made the cut in all four majors this year, including at the Masters where he contended (T-5) and at the US Open where he finished T-11.

Molinari is making the trek across the pond after finishing T-14 (69-70-69-71) against an elite field at last week’s BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Masters stats do not factor into PGA Tour stats (no ShotLink at Augusta), but Molinari’s numbers were still a little underwhelming next year.

He was above average in all the main categories except for putting but was no higher than 68th (around the green, .105).

With that said, he led the Tour in sand saves (65.33%) which will be ultra-handy at Silverado. He didn’t quite appear to have the same drive that guided him to his first major championship in 2018, but the talent still showed in flashes.

When he’s on, Molinari is a machine ball striker (second SG tee to green in 2018-19) and can get up and down from anywhere (17th SG around the green in ‘18-’19).

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