2022 Fortinet Championship Leaderboard: Last year’s champion Max Homa closes in on the lead in the first event of the season

A new PGA Tour season — the last with a fall swing as we know it — kicked off Thursday in Napa, California, with extended weather delays and a pretty compelling first-round leaderboard. The entire course was unable to complete Round 1 due to early West Coast fog, and a handful of golfers will complete their first 18 holes Friday morning.

Let’s look back at an interesting story at the top of the table after Round 1 was partially completed and a few big names had a great start to the new season.

Leader

1. Justin Lower (-9): Everyone probably remembers his tearful press conference after narrowly making it to the top 125 last year at the Wyndham Championship. Lower subsequently withheld his PGA Tour card due to a push up because several players ahead of him in the top 125 switched to LIV Golf, and he took advantage of it on Thursday at the Fortinet Championship.

Lower’s T8 finish last year at the Barbasol Championship was the best of his career by OWGR points earned, but he’s in a great position to do better than that and put himself in a great position to stay ahead of the curve to get into the top 125 when this season ends. Lower said after turning 63 on Thursday that a year of experience on the Tour has made all the difference in the world.

“Honestly, I left this course last year with a pretty big shock,” Lower said. “I said, ‘God, if the Tour is like that, I need to improve a lot very quickly.’ Yeah, I feel a lot more confident than this time last year, just last year’s last card and then my position this year, I feel a lot more confident with the match my own and definitely a lot more comfortable.”

Other candidates

2. Max Homa (-7)

T3. Ben An, JJ Spaun, SH Kim (-6)

T6. Greyson Sigg, Nick Taylor, Rickie Fowler, Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Scott Harrington, Matti Schmid, Sung Kang, Brice Garnett, Robby Shelton (-5)

This came to me last year at this very tournament, Homa won, but he has established himself as one of the most consistent threats to win the entire PGA Tour. He shot 65 for his third straight shot at the event (since last year when he shot 65-65 over the weekend to win) and took the spot he had stopped in for the good year. his best ever on the PGA Tour last season. With the Presidents Cup taking place next week, Homa’s form is a great sign for the US team and perhaps a better sign for him as he tries to win the tournament this year. second in a row (Brendan Steele did the same in 2016 and 2017).

Return of Rickie

Rickie Fowler has had a rough couple of years, but he had a great Thursday with 5 under 67, his second best round since the Wells Fargo Championship in May. The attention from him this weekend will be incredibly common and the absolute perfect start to the PGA Tour into a new season.

“Like we talked, just trying to get back to more stability,” Fowler said. “I’ve had some good weeks over the last few years, but it shouldn’t be just a couple of weeks in those years, there needs to be more. That’s the kind of thing that’s most important is getting back to playing some fine golf. determined, constantly competing and having a chance to win tournaments.”

2022 Fortinet Championship gets updated odds and selections

• Maximum Homa: +350
• Justin Lower: 9-1
• Sahith Theegala: 12-1
• JJ Spaun: 14-1
• Emiliano Grillo: 14-1
• Hideki Matsuyama: 20-1

I think Homa has the best chance of winning, but I don’t like his numbers here. I’d rather have Theegala at 12-1 or even someone like Adam Svensson – who is fifth in terms of strokes to have won the tee to the green on Thursday – 55-1.