2021 Fortinet Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Silverado

This tournament is no longer called the Safeway Open, but Brendan Steele still feels safe here in a lot of ways. I’ll see myself out for that one.

No, really, Steele should be brimming with confidence every time he steps foot on property at Silverado.

Since the newly titled Fortinet Championship arrived here in 2014, the Man of Steele has made the cut every year with back-to-back wins in 2016 and 2017, as well as three more top-30s.

In 2016, Steele fired 67-71-67-65 to edge Patton Kizzire by one shot and four players in a tie for third place by two.

Steele successfully defended his title by firing 65-67-72-69 to win by two in 2017 and by three shots over third place.

This was Steele’s response in 2020 when asked what it is about Silverado that seems to bring out the best in the Idyllwild, California, native.

“You know, people have been asking me that for years,” Steele was quoted by Tee Scripts. “I think there’s a lot of factors, I don’t think it’s one thing, but I really have a good sense of where you can be aggressive out here, where you need to be conservative, where you can miss it to different pins. I just kind of understood it right away, which is nice. And being from California, I’m comfortable on the greens.”

Steele is a pure horse for the course pick this week. He got off to a great start to 2021 with eight straight top-50s and two top-fives, but slipped a bit in the summer.

I like a trip to Napa to revitalize his game.