Two weeks following Tiger Woods' historic victory at the Tour Championship, the new PGA Tour season is already here. The 2018 Safeway Open tees off Thursday at the North Course at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California. The 2018 Safeway Open will draw wagers from professional bettors and Average Joes alike as the PGA Tour's first big event following the break for the Ryder Cup. Patrick Cantlay is the Vegas favorite at 14-1 Safeway Open odds, followed closely by Brandt Snedeker at 20-1. Before you make any 2018 Safeway Open picks or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on sites like DraftKings or FanDuel, you'll want to hear what the team at SportsLine has to say.
SportsLine's prediction model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has nailed four of the past eight majors entering the weekend and called Tiger Woods' deep run in the PGA Championship despite being a 25-1 long shot. The model has also been dead-on for this tournament. In fact, it was all over Brendan Steele winning last year's Safeway Open despite being a 25-1 long shot, projecting him as a top contender from the start. Anyone who has followed their model is up huge.
Now that the 2018 Safeway Open field is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times, and the results were surprising.
One huge shocker the model is calling for at the 2018 Safeway Open: Luke List, a massive 50-1 long shot, makes a serious run at the title. He's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday.
List finished last season with five top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, including a runner-up at the Honda Classic and a third-place showing in the RBC Heritage. He's also performed extremely well at this tournament, shooting eight straight rounds of par or better. And he finished last season ranked in the top 35 in scoring average (70.229) and birdie average (3.86), which should allow him to shoot a low score this week at the Safeway Open 2018.
Another surprise: Steele, the two-time defending champion of this event, fails to defend his title and finishes outside the top five.
Steele can become the first golfer since 2011 to three-peat a PGA Tour event. However, he has missed the cut in four of his past five starts on the PGA Tour. He's somebody to completely steer clear of this week despite his past success.
Also, the model says six additional golfers with 2018 Safeway Open odds of 25-1 or longer will make a strong run at title. Anyone who backs these underdogs could hit it big.
So who wins the 2018 Safeway Open? And which long shots stun the golfing world? Check out the latest Safeway Open odds below and visit SportsLine now to see the full Safeway Open projected leaderboard from the model that nailed Brendan Steele's win last year.
Patrick Cantlay 14-1
Brandt Snedeker 20-1
Ryan Moore 22-1
Joaquin Niemann 25-1
Phil Mickelson 25-1
Denny McCarthy 28-1
Emiliano Grillo 28-1
Abraham Ancer 33-1
Adam Hadwin 33-1
Sangmoon Bae 33-1
Beau Hossler 40-1
Brendan Steele 40-1
Cameron Davis 40-1
Hunter Mahan 40-1
Patrick Rodgers 40-1
Peter Uihlein 40-1
Luke List 50-1
Russell Knox 50-1
Harold Varner III 50-1
