Safeway Open: Top 10 power rankings at Silverado for 2020

This is normally the time of year the Irishman Shane Lowry is back on his home continent. The European Tour is usually building toward its fall season finale, but the COVID-19 pandemic had other plans.

That means the U.S. Open is next week, so Lowry is behooved to stick in the U.S. He didn’t play much in the U.S. prior to the PGA Tour’s stoppage in March, so he was low on FedEx Cup points. His playoff run ended early with a missed cut at The Northern Trust, but we’ve still got enough to build from.

For one, he’s the reigning 2019 Open Champion. It seems as if a million things in and out of the golf world have happened since then. It really wasn’t all that long ago when Lowry torched the field at Royal Portrush for a six-shot win.

The 33-year-old hasn’t won since then, though some inconsistency can be expected after such a life-altering victory.

He had four straight top-30s early in 2020, including at the WGC-Mexico Championship. World Golf Championships and majors seem to bring the best out of him. He won the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and was T-6th in July at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

Lowry followed it up with a T-66th at the PGA Championship, which was his fourth straight made cut in a major, and T-23rd at the Wyndham Championship.

Lowry had a tough statistical season with the putter. He’s seeing new greens at Silverado this week. Fortunately poa annua can be a neutralizer.

Everywhere else he’s gaining strokes on the field and is in the top 60 in SG off the tee (.203 per round, 60th), approach (.354, 42nd) and around the green (.122, 54th).

Bunker play isn’t a huge deal this week, though it never hurts. Lowry’s seventh in sand saves (61.54%).

When Lowry’s in the U.S., he’s usually up against tons of big names. I like his chances as one of the stars this week.