Russell Knox shoots 63 to take early lead at Safeway Open at Silverado
After a one-hour delay due to fog at the start of the day, the players in the Safeway Open headed to the Nos. 1 and 10 tees on Thursday for the opening round of the Safeway Open, the PGA Tour’s opening event of the 2020–21 season.
They didn’t hold back, with Russell Knox shooting a 9-under-par 63 to take the first-round lead on the par-72, 7,116-yard North Course at Napa’s Silverado Resort and Spa.
It was a day all about going low.
Knox, who had an eagle and seven birdies during a bogey-free round, is followed closely by Sam Burns, Cameron Percy and Bo Hoag.
Burns, Percy and Hoag are tied for second place after each shot 8-under-par 64s.
Brendan Steele, who won at Silverado in 2016 and 2017, is tied for fifth, joined by Pat Perez. They each had 65s.
The leaderboard has so many players in red numbers — indicative of the kind of day it was.
“There’s a lot of moisture in the air today compared to the last couple days, which obviously made it a little bit easier in attacking the course,” said Knox, a two-time winner on Tour who is originally from Scotland.
Knox shot 31 on the front nine, as he eagled the par-5 fifth hole and had birdies on Nos. 4, 6 and 9. He shot 32 on the back nine, with birdies on Nos. 10, 12, 16 and 18. It’s one stroke shy of his career-low round on the PGA Tour.
“It was a day where a lot of good things happened and definitely nice to get off to a good start,” said Knox. “You know, I’ve struggled in first rounds for so long. One of my main goals this season was to get off to a better start. I didn’t quite expect this, but nice to shoot a good score.
“I definitely got a couple of good breaks today, but it’s nice to hole putts.”
Burns eagled the par-5 16th hole and had seven birdies, including four in a row, from Nos. 9–12. His only bogey came on the 17th hole.
“I just played pretty solid,” said Burns. “My iron play was good. I made some good putts. Then unfortunately kind of a bad bogey on 17, but overall a good day.”
Burns qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs for the second straight season. He had five Top-25 finishes, led by a tie for sixth at The American Express.
Percy had eight birdies on his card. He birdied his final three holes.
“I hit a lot of fairways and I actually had a lot of perfect numbers for me to attack some of the pins, so that made it a lot easier so I was able to get pretty close,” said Percy. “Like I had a lot of 8‑irons and 9-irons, they were all perfect so I could really attack them and they just stuck and I made the putt. I just felt like I had a perfect number all day, it wasn’t like in between 7 or 8, it was just like this is perfect.”
Hoag also had eight birdies during his round, including one from 26 feet, 8 inches on №9, his last hole.
“I just felt like I gave myself a lot of chances,” said Hoag. “It wasn’t super firm out there this afternoon, just kind of cooler temperatures I think kept it somewhat receptive.”
Steele had seven birdies and no bogeys during his round. He had three top-10 finishes and placed 47th in the FedExCup during the 2019–20 season.
He knows the layout at Silverado very well.
“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,” he said.
It was cloudy with high fog, with a high of 69 and light winds out of the south-southwest.
Due to darkness, round one was suspended for the day at 7:11 p.m. on Thursday. Fifteen players were to be in position at 7:30 a.m. on Friday to complete their round. Round two will begin as scheduled at 7 a.m., the PGA Tour said.
The Safeway Open is the first of 50 events in the 2020–21 PGA Tour schedule.
“Whatever happens the rest of the week, I managed to shoot a great first round, which is nice,” said Knox. “You feel like you’re obviously in the tournament.”
