Fortinet preview 🍇

The Fortinet Championship is upon us 🍷. And while it’s technically not the start of a new PGA Tour season, the Napa, California event kicks off a seven-tournament series recently dubbed the FedEx Cup Fall.

So, there’s freshness in the air and a sense of urgency for plenty of players looking to secure their spots in 2024. Let’s dive in…

Top storylines in wine country

Max Homa — back from a quick, Ryder Cup scouting trip to Rome — is trying to win his third consecutive Fortinet Championship. Last year, Homa chipped in on the 72nd hole to beat Danny Willet by one.

• Did you know: Only six golfers have completed the three-peat in PGA Tour history.

• Steve Stricker was the last player to do it in 2011. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods pulled off the feat six different times during his career!

Justin Thomas — the US Ryder Cup team’s most controversial captain’s pick — is hoping to quiet the naysayers with a solid performance this week.

• Thomas is having the worst season of his career (currently 71st in FedEx Cup points). But, he’s found success in Napa before.

• Thomas has averaged 2.01 total strokes gained in the 14 competitive rounds he’s played at Silverado’s North Course. That’s the best strokes gained average out of any golfer in this week’s field that’s played Silverado more than four times, according to the golf analytics site RickRunGood.com.

• The last time Thomas competed at the Fortinet in 2019 he finished T4.

Betting favorites

The top 10 favorites heading into this week:

• Max Homa +750

• Justin Thomas +1200

• Sahith Theegala +1800

• Cam Davis +2000

• Stephan Jaeger +2000

• Beau Hossler +2800

• Eric Cole +3500

• J.J. Spaun +3500

• Lucas Herbert +4000

• Andrew Putnam +4000

Who else I’m watching:

Chez Reavie (+5500) has played more rounds at Silverado (34) than any other player in the field AND has gained 1.22 strokes per round along the way, per RickRunGood.

Akshay Bhatia (+4500), winner of the Barracuda Championship in July, finished T9 the last time he played at Silverado in 2020.

• Bhatia also got engaged earlier this week — popping the question amongst the vineyards – which could help inspire some good play?

Player profile: Who is Eric Cole?

One of the favorites heading into the week is Eric Cole, a 35-year old journeyman who’s among a handful of players vying for this season’s Rookie of the Year honors.

• In his first year on the PGA Tour, Cole has three top-10 finishes, including a solo 2nd at the Honda Classic, where he lost in a playoff to Chris Kirk.

• Cole has won over $3.3 million this season and ranks 43rd in FedEx Cup points.

Yes, but: As his rookie age of 35 might suggest, Cole’s road to the PGA Tour has been far from conventional.

• After turning pro in 2009, Cole played on south Florida’s Minor League Golf Tour.

• He won over 50 times on the mini tour, but all-in, his earnings totaled just under $200,000.

• Cole qualified for the 2022-23 PGA Tour season after finishing T3 at last year’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

The intrigue: Cole comes from a family of serious golfers.

• His father, Bobby Cole, was a former PGA Tour player who won the 1977 Buick Open.

• His mother, Laura Baugh, won the US Women's Amateur in 1971 at 16 years old.

  • She was also the LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1973.

A bit about the course

The North Course at Silverado Country Club has hosted the Fortinet Championship (fka the Frys.com Open and Safeway Open) since 2014.

Here are a few things to know:

• At just over 7,100 yards, Silverado is one of the shorter par 72 courses on the PGA Tour.

• It also has the second narrowest fairways players will face all year.

• Still, you’ll likely see plenty of drivers since the rough isn’t much of a punishment (which means plenty of missed fairways).

• As a result, one of the most important stats at Silverado this week, according to RickRunGood, will be approach shots out of the rough from 125-150 yards.

What else is happening

👀 All 12 members of the European Ryder Cup team are set to play in this week’s BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in England. (CBS)

• Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, and Ludvig Aberg will tee it up together at the DP World Tour event on Thursday and Friday.

☝️Twenty-year-old Ruoning Yin from China is now the top ranked women’s golfer in the world. (NBC)

💈Golf Magazine’s Sean Zak and I share many of the same, burning questions about this year’s US Ryder Cup team, like — Will Sam Burns and Brooks Koepka get haircuts before Rome? And, seriously, what’s up with the tie-dye hats? (Golf)

And finally…

Ahead of the BMW PGA, the DP World Tour punked English golfer Richard Mansell by setting him up with the worst Pro-Am partner ever.

If you haven’t seen this video already, watch and enjoy.

That’s all for today! Thanks so much for reading y’all and if you liked this edition, I’d love for you to share it with a friend who’s currently obsessed with golf.

See you on Friday! - Nick B.

*Correction: An earlier version of this article said the three-peat had only happened six times in PGA Tour history. Instead, only six players have pulled off the feat. Tiger Woods himself has had six three-peats in his career. 😅