Safeway Open

[Bamford]

The start of the new 2018/19 PGA Tour season sees the now well-established trip to Silverado Country Club in Napa, California. A mix of PGA Tour mid-range pros, low-end journeymen and a fresh group of web.com Tour grads - some with plenty of PGA Tour experience and others who are total rookies. A number of the PGA Tour events left in 2018 will look like this from a field perspective, including the Shriners, Sandersons Farms and the OHL Classic in Mexico. Silverado is a pretty stock par 72, which is tree-lined and features tight fairways and undulating greens. In standard weather it's no real challenge, but one of the nuances we need to get a grip of from a tipping perspective are the greens which feature Bentgrass Poa Annua. As we know Poa Annua doesn't suit plenty of players. The course is a ball-strikers paradise, with a set of par-5s which are all reachable, for those who can keep their drives in-play. 

From a field perspective, Patrick Cantlay has the natural talent to stand-out at the top of the market. He plays this tournament for the first time at Siverado, and the fact he has chosen a "home-state" tournament, says to me, he fancies the job at hand. I'll take the 14/1 on the best ball-striker in the field. 

I'm also covering previous Silverado champions in the form of Emiliano Grillo (33/1) and Sang-moon Bae (50/1), the latter, who arrives fresh from a win at the Boise Open in the web.com Tour Playoffs. A triple-digits I'm also in on Bronson Burgoon at 100/1, who played well here 12 months ago and seems to be acclimatising well to the PGA Tour after 6th The National, 2nd at the John Deere Classic and 11th in the stacked Northern Trust. 

 

[claretkid78]

My team for The Safeway Open: 

Ryan Moore 25-1. Chez Reavie 50-1. Luke List 50-1. Scott Piercy 66-1. Andrew Landry 66-1. Danny Lee 80-1. 

All played 1 point ew.