Safeway Open: Top 10 power rankings at Silverado for 2020
![NAPA, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 29: A general view of the 18th green during the final round of the Safeway Open at the Silverado Resort on September 29, 2019 in Napa, California. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images) NAPA, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 29: A general view of the 18th green during the final round of the Safeway Open at the Silverado Resort on September 29, 2019 in Napa, California. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/90777439a2c430d6d4fd53225a383587aaf6ed732deef20b572a90fd1249e62b.jpg)
Mark Hubbard has been a PGA Tour journeyman for a half dozen years and is still seeking his first win. He has plenty of reasons to keep up that pursuit.
I categorize Hubbard as one of those guys since the restart who you just keep seeing popping up on leaderboards. He doesn’t always end up in the mix late on Sunday, but he’s consistently making cuts and posting solid results.
Hubbs is working on a streak of four made cuts, and eight if you discount a withdrawal at the Workday Charity Open. Nowhere in there is a top 10, which is concerning. What I like is three top-30s, one of which was a T-29th at The Northern Trust that got him into the BMW Championship.
These results don’t jump off the page, but most of these tournaments featured world class fields. Hubbard was even stronger at the beginning of the season when he posted a career best T-2nd last fall at the Houston Open. He followed it up with a T-9th and T-11th early in 2020.
The 31-year-old’s calling card is his putter. He finished 29th on the PGA Tour in 2019-2020 in strokes gained putting. He made over 80 feet of putts on Sunday in Houston.
He played collegiately at San Jose State and shouldn’t have a big issue with poa annua.
Hubbard needs to have a good ball striking to contend. He’s one of the shorter guys out there, but fortunately his good accuracy (58th, 62.84%) is enough to give him a chance at a shorter track like Silverado.
He’s made three of four cuts at the Safeway Open, including a best of T-13th in 2019 (71-71-67-69). Hubbard was fourth in the field gaining 1.608 strokes per round on the greens.