Fortinet Championship Key Fantasy Stats

Fortinet Championship

September 15th – 18th, 2022

Silverado C.C. (North)

Napa, CA

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,123

Purse: $8 million

with $1,440,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Max Homa

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most vital stats from Silverado Resort, North course based on data from last year’s Fortinet Championship and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2022. Remember this is the first event of the 2022/23 season, and there will be a lot of new Korn Ferry grads in the field.
This is the ninth year that the Fortinet Championship is being played at Silverado, which has a history of holding PGA Tour events going back to the 60s. So the resort has had a deep relationship with professional golf. A couple of years ago, Johnny Miller put together an investment group to buy the Napa resort and its two golf courses which were built in the 1960s. Both courses were designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and were good, but they were never updated with the advent of new equipment. So when Miller came in, he wanted to rework the two courses and bring them up to date. He started first on the North Course by revamping all of the greens, putting in new bunkering and realigning the fairways, and trimming the too cumbersome trees. The most important item in the change was changing the greens by adding some undulation and making them very fast. Miller also added 300 yards, so it will play at a par 72 and at 7,166 yards.
Last year the course played to a 71.04 scoring average, just about a shot under par, and was the 32nd hardest course on the PGA Tour in 2022. It played almost a shot above the 2021 scoring average of 70.21 and the same as it played in 2020 (71.24, 19th hardest course that year). The lack of wind makes the course play harder and easier.
For the pros, the hardest aspect of the course is hitting fairways, in 2022 47.105 of the fairways were hit as it was the 2nd hardest fairways to hit on the PGA Tour in 2022, only Wilmington C.C., which held last month’s BMW Championship was harder to hit. Again hitting fairways is key, in 2021, 51.64% of the fairways were hit as it was the 6th hardest fairways to hit In 2020, the field hit 50.03% of the fairways as it was the 2nd hardest fairways to hit in 2020. Only Olympia Fields, the site of the BMW Championship, was harder to hit. This is the norm for Silverado in 2019 53.65% of the fairways were hit as it ranked the 4th hardest course to hit in 2019.
Even with the tight fairways, the players hit 67.05% of the fairways as it ranked 28th hardest on the PGA Tour in 2022. Because the course only plays at a short 7,123 yards, it only means that despite missing a fairway, the player has a short iron that is easily maneuverable from rough. So in years, the rough is harder than other years, but with the drought, that isn’t the case. Now in 2021, the players hit 71.72% of the greens making it the 43rd hardest course to hit in regulation. Now, this was the all-time record for Silverado, in past years, it was harder to hit. In 2020 65.73% of the greens were hit, making it the 16th hardest course to hit in regulation.
One of the things that keeps scoring low is the total amount of birdies made, last year, 1,688 were made, as only 11 other courses saw more birdies made. In 2021 1,891 birdies were made, and only two other courses in 2021 saw more birdies made, so hitting fairways and greens does lead to making a lot of birdies.
As for the greens, they were the 6th hardest greens to score on as players made 70.7 feet of putts. The previous year in 2021, it was the
3rd hardest greens to score on as the players made 68 feet and 9 inches of putts per round.

So a combination of hitting it far and straight is important, so our first category is Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green. In looking at last year’s champion Max Homa, he was 2nd in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green as he was 45th in driving distance and T-15th in driving accuracy. The previous year’s champion Stewart Cink was 3rd in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green as he was 17th in driving distance and was T-51st in driving accuracy. In 2020, Cameron Champ was 1st in Strokes Gained Tee-to-green, as he led in driving distance and was T-21st in driving accuracy. In 2019 Kevin Tway won and he was T-40th in Driving Accuracy and T-14th in driving distance, so he was 3rd in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green. Comparing this with Brendan Steele, who won back to back in 2018 and 2017, Steele was 1st in Strokes Gained Tee-to-green in 2018 and 11th in 2017, so we can see the importance of this stat. So our first category is Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green.
Our second most important category is Strokes Gained Around-the-Green. That is because last year, the course ranked 28th in greens hit. In 2021 the course ranked 43rd in greens hit. Now it was drastically different in 2020 when the course ranked 16th in greens hit. So for those that miss greens, they have to get it up and down to score well. Last year the players got it up and down from off the green 60.79% of the time, T-29th for all courses in 2022. In 2021 the players got it up and down from off the green 61.99%, making it the 36th course in scrambling. In 2020 it was 60.89%, making it the 28th course in scrambling. As for bunkering the 18 greens have 36 bunkers around them so many players will have to get up and down from sand, last year the course ranked T-21st in Sand Save percentage while in 2021 it ranked 35th, in 2020 it ranked 25th. As for the champions, last year Max Homa was 24th in Strokes Gained Around-the-Green as he was T-75th in scrambling and T-60th in Sand Save percentage. He wasn’t very impressive in this category, but in 2021 Stewart Cink was 8th in Strokes Gained Around-the-Green as he was 2nd in Scrambling and T-68th in Sand Save Percentage. In 2020 the winner Cameron Champ was 19th in Strokes Gained Around-the-Green as he was 1st in scrambling and 11th in Sand Save percentage. In 2019 Kevin Tway was 7th in Strokes Gained Around-the-Green as he also was first in scrambling.
Our third category was Strokes Gained Putting. The greens are a combination of Poa annua and Bent, so we all know it takes a special person to be able to putt well on Poa annua greens. Last year Max Homa ranked 22nd in Strokes Gained Putting. The previous year Stewart Cink ranked 16th in strokes Gained Putting. In 2020, Cameron Champ ranked 28th in Strokes Gained putting, while 2019 champion Kevin Tway was 18th, 2018 winner Brendan Steele was 29th, and in 2017 he was 6th.
Our last category is Par Breakers because to win, you have to make a lot of birdies, along with some eagles. Last year Silverado was 28th in Par Breakers as winner Max Homa was T-1st as he made 24 birdies which were T-1st, and made two eagles. The previous year, Silverado was 43rd in Par Breakers as Stewart Cink was T-6th as he made 23 birdies which he finished T-5th. In 2020 the course played a lot harder as it was 15th in Par Breakers as Cameron Champ was T-4th as he made 21 birdies which also finished T-4th. In 2019 Kevin Tway was T-10th making 19 birdies. Brendan Steele was 5th in Par Breakers in 2018 and T-1st in 2017 when he made 24 birdies.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: Looks at the combination of length off the tee and accuracy, then getting the ball on the green, so it determines who is best at all of these items.

*Strokes Gained Around-the-Green: Looks at the combination of gaining strokes by getting up and down after missing a green.

*Strokes Gained Putting: The number of putts a player takes from a specific distance is measured against a statistical baseline to determine the player’s strokes gained or lost on a hole.

*Par Breakers: Combination of birdies and eagles made to show under-par scoring.

Of the 156 players in the field, 96 have stats on the PGA Tour for 2022:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.