The Fortinet Championship, previously the Safeway Open, is a professional
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
tournament, part of the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
. Originally sponsored by
Fry's Electronics
Fry's Electronics was an American big-box store chain. While operating, it was headquartered in San Jose, California in Silicon Valley. Fry's retailed software, consumer electronics, household appliances, cosmetics, tools, toys, accessories, ma ...
, it was first staged in 2007 as the Fry's Electronics Open at
Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor Course in
Scottsdale, Arizona
, settlement_type = City
, named_for = Winfield Scott
, image_skyline =
, image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg
, image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg
, nick ...
. It was renamed to the Frys.com Open in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and moved to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
, to
CordeValle Golf Club
CordeValle is a private golf course and spa resort on the West Coast of the United States, located near San Martin, California, southeast of San Jose. It is in the Santa Clara Valley, near the eastern edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The club's ...
in
San Martin, southeast of
San Jose. In October 2014, part of the PGA Tour's
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
season, it moved north to
Napa and the
Silverado Country Club
The Silverado Resort and Spa is a golf, tennis, and spa resort in Napa County, California, United States. The venue is named after the Silverado Mine, a quicksilver mine near Mount Saint Helena. The resort is the fifth largest employer in Napa ...
Beginning with the October 2016 tournament, part of the PGA Tour's
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
season, the primary sponsor was
Safeway Inc.
Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...
, and that continued through 2020. In 2021
Fortinet
Fortinet is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and sells cybersecurity solutions, such as physical firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion prevention systems, and endpoint secur ...
became the title sponsor on a six-year deal.
History
Silverado's North Course hosted an annual event on the PGA Tour from
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Januar ...
through
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – ...
, the first nine editions as the
Kaiser International Open Invitational
The Michelob Championship at Kingsmill was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1968 to 2002. It was played in Virginia at the River Course of Kingsmill Golf Club outside of Williamsburg, from 1981 to 2002. From 1977 through 1995, it was kno ...
. In
1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...
, that event was renamed the
Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic
The Michelob Championship at Kingsmill was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1968 to 2002. It was played in Virginia at the River Course of Kingsmill Golf Club outside of Williamsburg, from 1981 to 2002. From 1977 through 1995, it was know ...
and in
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
it moved east to
Kingsmill Kingsmill or Kingsmills may refer to:
Places
* Kingsmill, Virginia, an area of James City County, Virginia, United States
* Kingsmill, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, site of the 1976 Kingsmill massacre
* Kingsmill, Ontario, Canada
* Kingsmill, ...
in
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...
, where it was played through
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
.
The Frys.com Open began as a
PGA Tour Fall Series
The PGA Tour Fall Series was name of the events on the PGA Tour that covered the end of the calendar year from 2007 to 2012 after the Tour Championship. Beginning in 2013, these events became part of the PGA Tour season, which from that point began ...
event, from 2007 through 2012. Starting in October 2013, when the PGA Tour changed its "year" to begin in October, rather than January, the tournament became the opening event of the PGA Tour season, and
FedEx Cup
The FedEx Cup is a championship trophy for the PGA Tour. Its introduction marked the first time that men's professional golf had a playoff system. Announced in November 2005, it was first awarded in 2007. Rory McIlroy is the 2022 champion. Th ...
points were awarded to players.
The inaugural event in 2007, at Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Arizona, was won by
Mike Weir
Michael Richard Weir, (born May 12, 1970) is a Canadian professional golfer. He currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent over 110 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 2001 and 2005. He plays golf left-handed ...
by one stroke over
Mark Hensby
Mark Adam Hensby (born 29 June 1971) is an Australian professional golfer.
Hensby was born in Melbourne, Victoria. He grew up in Tamworth, New South Wales and attended Tamworth High School, leaving at the age of 16 to work as a postie while sp ...
. The 2008 event was won by
Cameron Beckman
Cameron Reid Beckman (born February 15, 1970) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He was previously a member of the PGA Tour, where he was a three-time winner.
Beckman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and ...
on the second playoff hole, when
Kevin Sutherland
Kevin John Sutherland (born July 4, 1964) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions.
Sutherland was born in Sacramento, California and graduated from Christian Brothers High School. He attended Fresno S ...
bogeyed it. In 2009,
Troy Matteson
Troy Jason Matteson (born November 8, 1979) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.
Amateur career
Matteson was born in Rockledge, Florida. He played college golf at Georgia Tech and won the NCAA Individual Championship in ...
set a PGA Tour 36-hole record of 122 with 61 in both the second and third rounds, and then won in a three-man playoff against
Rickie Fowler
Rick Yutaka Fowler (born December 13, 1988) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He was the number one ranked amateur golfer in the world for 36 weeks in 2007 and 2008. On January 24, 2016 he reached a career high fourth ...
and
Jamie Lovemark
Jamie Lovemark (born January 23, 1988) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.
Amateur career
Lovemark was born in Rancho Santa Fe, California and attended Torrey Pines High School. He won the 2005 Western Amateur and theref ...
. At CordeValle in San Martin in 2012,
John Mallinger
John Charles Mallinger (born September 25, 1979) is an American professional golfer.
Early life
Mallinger was born in Escondido, California, and is the youngest of four children. He graduated from Escondido High School.
Amateur career
Malli ...
shot a 62, matching the course record; it was his PGA Tour best round.
In 2013, tournament organizers had a long-term goal to stage the event at The Institute Golf Course in
Morgan Hill
Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainmen ...
, a course owned by when facilities were completed there. That was expected in 2016 or 2017,
but did not happen because of the change of sponsorship to Safeway in 2016.
Winners
:''Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.''
References
External links
*
Coverage on the PGA Tour's official site
{{Coord, 38.349, -122.264, display=title, type:event
PGA Tour events
Golf in California
Golf in Arizona
Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sports in Scottsdale, Arizona
Recurring sporting events established in 2007
2007 establishments in Arizona
October sporting events