2021 Fortinet Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Silverado
The 2021-22 PGA Tour season gets underway this week with the Fortinet Championship. No, not the Fortnite Championship, though getting Fortnite involved might attract some more youngsters to the tournament.
Fortinet is a cybersecurity company in its first year as the title sponsor for the tournament previously known as the Safeway Open. Silverado Country Club’s North course in Napa, California continues to be the host venue.
The tournament originated in 2007 and has been at Silverado since 2014. In recent years it’s held down the spot as the season opener.
Silverado North is a 7,166-yard par-72. It was designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1966 and redesigned by Johnny Miller in 2011. The course is easier than average by PGA Tour standards. Players are tested to hit it straight and avoid the tree-lined rough, but less than driver is OK on many par-4s and par-5s to make this an easier task.
The bentgrass/poa annua greens are fairly large, soft and generally not lightning quick.
The Fortinet Championship tends to attract fairly weak fields, but you can cajole at least a handful of names to annually come over for a relaxing fall week in wine country.
This year’s list of notables is headlined by world No. 1 Jon Rahm, who is peculilarly the only Ryder Cup participant playing in Napa.
He is the only top-10 player in the Official World Golf Rankings in the field.
This is a good week to tune in if you like to see up-and-coming Korn Ferry Tour graduates get their crack at making it on the PGA Tour.
It’s huge for them to make the most of the fall season while spots in tournaments are assured.
The early weather forecast hints at a ry week with temperatures in the upper 50s to lower 80s with winds getting up around 10 miles per hour. Winning score tends to be in the teens under par, if not better. Expect that trend to continue unless conditions drastically change.
One of the aforementioned KFT guys could make a dream come true by taking home the wine barrel trophy this week. Here are 10 picks for who could dash out to the (very, very) early FedEx Cup points lead.