The Safeway Open is a professional golf tournament, part of the PGA Tour. It was first staged in 2007 as the Fry's Electronics Open at Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was renamed to the Frys.com Open in 2008, and moved to California in 2010, at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin. In October 2014, part of the PGA Tour's 2015 season, the tournament moved to the North course of Silverado Country Club in Napa. The purse was $5 million for the tournament's first seven years and was raised to $6 million for the 2015 season.
Beginning with the October 2016 tournament, part of the PGA Tour's 2017 season, the primary sponsor is Safeway Inc., and the tournament has been renamed the Safeway Open. The tournament will continue at Silverado through 2020, with Safeway sponsorship.
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History
Silverado's North Course hosted an annual event on the PGA Tour from 1968 through 1980, the first nine editions as the Kaiser International Open Invitational. In 1977, that event was renamed the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic and in 1981 it moved east to Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Virginia, where it was played through 2002.
The Frys.com Open began as a PGA Tour Fall Series 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 points were awarded to players.
In 2013, tournament organizers had a long-term goal to stage the event at The Institute Golf Course in Morgan Hill, California, a course owned by John Fry when facilities were completed there. That was expected in 2016 or 2017, but did not happen because of the change of sponsorship to Safeway.
The inaugural event in 2007, at Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Arizona, was won by Canadian Mike Weir by one stroke over Mark Hensby. In 2008 the event was won by Cameron Beckman on the second playoff hole, when he parred it and Kevin Sutherland bogeyed it. In 2009, Troy Matteson set a PGA Tour 36-hole record by shooting 61-61=122 in the second and third rounds, and then won the tournament in a three-man playoff against Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark. At CordeValle in San Martin in 2012, John Mallinger shot a 62, matching the course record and his PGA Tour best round.
Other notable players who have participated in the tournament include Ernie Els, David Duval, and Tiger Woods. Woods committed to play in the 2011 tournament as a condition for being selected by Fred Couples as one of two captain's pick for the United States team in the 2011 Presidents Cup, which took place in mid-November 2011. In mid-September 2015, Woods again committed to play in the October tournament, but one week later he had back surgery, and missed the entire 2016 PGA Tour season. However, he announced on September 7, 2016 of his intention to play in the 2017 season tournament, but opted out days before.
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Winners
Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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