Going low on the first day of Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort
The first round of the Fortinet Championship on Thursday was suspended at 7:20 a.m. due to fog. After about a 90-minute delay, the fog cleared, the players were back on the North Course at Napa’s Silverado Resort and Spa, and the red numbers started flying all over the place on the tournament leaderboard.
There is Justin Lower of Canal Fulton, Ohio. He’s the 18-hole leader after firing a bogey-free 9-under-par 63.
There is Max Homa, the tournament’s defending champion. He is alone in second place after opening with a 7-under 65, a round that featured seven birdies.
There is Byeong Hun An and S.H. Kim, both of South Korea, and J.J. Spaun of Los Angeles. They are in a three-way tie for third after shooting 66s.
Nine players are tied at 5-under 67. This includes Greyson Sigg of Augusta, GA, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., Canada, Rickie Fowler of Murrieta, CA, Sahith Theegala of Woodlands, TX, Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, Scott Harrington of Scottsdale, AZ, Matti Schmid of Maxhuette, Germany, Sung Kang of South Korea, and Brice Garnett of Gallatin, MO.
There are eight players tied for 16th at 4-under 68.
The fog delayed starting times, with the final groups going out at 3:52 p.m. on the par-72, 7,123-yard course, which puts up a solid defense with thick, long rough, narrow fairways, and greens that are defined by speed and slope.
First-round play was suspended due to darkness.
“Fairways are important to try to hit,” said Taylor. “The course typically gets more difficult as the week goes on and as the days go on. I’ve had some good success here, so I’ve liked kind of all aspects of it, so I always enjoy coming back.”
“It’s firm, so you’ve got to have some spin on the ball, and then you’ve got to hit the fairways,” said Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C. Canada. “There’s some tucked flags around here and you’ve got to play smart. There’s some birdie holes, but there’s also holes where you’ve got to make par, so you just kind of plod around.”
The Fortinet Championship has a crowded leaderboard, with so many players in the mix after Round 1 of the PGA Tour’s 2022–2023 season-opening event, which carries an $8 million purse. It’s a FedExCup regular season event and has a field of 156 players. It’s televised by Golf Channel.
Fowler, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, who has played on four Ryder Cup teams, three Presidents Cup teams, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, is making his first start at Silverado.
“We love it up here, love being able to spend time in Napa. I’ve always heard good things about this event,” said Fowler, the 2015 PLAYERS Championship winner. “I’ve really enjoyed it so far. Really like the golf course, the staff here does a great job, and we’re going to stay for a few days afterwards and enjoy some wine and Napa, other than golf.”
Fowler qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs for the 12th time in his career, finishing last season №133 in the official FedExCup standings. He recorded one top-10 finish and made 13 cuts in 22 starts.
Fowler hit 9-of-14 fairways and 15-of-18 greens in regulation in the first round. He had 29 putts and was 3-for-3 in scrambling.
“It was a fairly simple day, but I think a lot of that was set up by driving it fairly nicely, especially the second half of the day and kind of was just able to keep moving forward,” said Fowler. “Not many times where I had to play too defensively. I think we did a really good job of executing and hitting a lot of shots where we were trying to.”
The biggest thing Fowler said he is looking forward to doing is getting back to playing some consistent golf, consistently being in contention and having chances to win tournaments.
“Really just a step in the right direction. Not that we haven’t been doing that in the past. Just trying to get back to being more consistent. I’ve had some good weeks in the past few years, but it shouldn’t just be a few weeks in those years, there needs to be more,” he said.
Lower is exempt this season by finishing in the Top 125 in 2021–22. He had 23 putts, was 4-for-4 scrambling, and hit 7-of-14 fairways and 14-of-18 greens in regulation.
Lower had two top-10 and five top-25 finishes this past season.
He tied for eighth at the Barbasol Championship, tied for 10th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, tied for 15th at the Corales Puntacana Championship, and tied for 16th at the Barracuda Championship.
On Thursday, he was a birdie machine, making birdies on Nos. 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 14, 16, 17 and 18.
“I’ll take it,” said Lower. “I birdied half the holes, so that’s always a good start. I’m honestly just happy to be in the position I am having full status for once. I actually get to play events I wanted to play this fall. Last fall I only got three starts, so looking to get off to a better start this fall for sure.
“I feel a lot more confident than I did at this point last year.”
Homa’s birdies came on Nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17.
“Just played solid, made it as easy as possible,” said Homa. “Holed a couple good putts. So, clean start to the season.”
An went to UC Berkeley. He secured a return to the PGA Tour by finishing №13 on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Eligibility Points List.
He hit 6-of-14 fairways and 11-of-18 greens in regulation, and had 24 putts in the first round.
“I didn’t drive it as good. It could have been a little bit better. I putted decent,” said An. “There’s some mistakes here and there, but I scrambled very well and made some long par putts and birdie putts. Everything kept nicely together. Very happy with it in the first day of a new season.”
An is seeking his first win on the PGA Tour.
“Just keep believing in myself, I think,” he said. “I feel I have the game. My team, we always say if you just play like the way you do and some putts drop, get a lucky bounce, you’ll win it. Like I say, it’s only the first week of the new season, but I’m going to do the same thing I’ve been doing the last couple months and hopefully everything clicks at once and get the win. Like I said, it’s the first week this season, I’m not in a rush or anything. But it would be nice to start off with a win, definitely.”
Byeong Hun An was college teammates with Max Homa and Brandon Hagy in his only season at UC Berkeley (2010–11).
Kim started out the event by hitting 8-of-14 fairways, 14-of-18 greens and getting around in 26 putts.
“I had a good start, which got me into a good rhythm. And just as I got comfortable on the course, it led to me hitting some shots I wanted to. So overall I’m happy for how the day went today,” said Kim. “The first two holes I was nervous, but I got over the nerves.
“Course management seems to be very important on this course. It requires accurate tee shots and scoring, being able to score around the greens, which I was able to do today, which led me to a good score. Tomorrow, I think the greens are going to be a little firmer, the course is going to be a little firmer, so I’ll have to have good teamwork and discussion with my caddie to manage the course better than I did today.”
This is the final season of the PGA Tour’s wraparound schedule, which began in 2013–14. Since then, Silverado has been the host site of the Tour’s season-opening event, with the exception of 2019–20. Silverado has hosted the Frys.com Open (2014–2015) and the Safeway Open (2016–2020). This is the second year of the Fortinet Championship.
Silverado’s long, distinguished history of hosting PGA Tour events dates back to the 1960s.
Five players in this week’s field will be on teams in next week’s Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 20–25. Max Homa, the defending Fortinet Championship winner, is the lone player on the U.S. team. Corey Conners (Canada), Cam Davis (Australia), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) and Taylor Pendrith (Canada) are on the International team.
Temperatures were in the mid-70s late in the day, with sunny conditions.
There are 28 members of the 2022–23 PGA Tour rookie class, with 27 of those players in the field this week.
Five players that advanced to the season-ending TOUR Championship are here this week: Max Homa, Tom Hoge, Hideki Matsuyama, Corey Conners and Sahith Theegala.
Matsuyama, at №16 in the Official World Golf Ranking, is the highest-ranked player in the field this week.
The tournament continues with Friday’s second round and over the weekend with the third round on Saturday and the final round on Sunday.
There is a cut to the low 65 players, plus ties, after the second round.
The winner earns $1.44 million and 500 FedExCup points.
