September 10-13
Silverado Resort and Spa North, Napa, California
$6,600,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Russell Knox holds the first round lead after a 9-under 63 in the first event of the new PGA Tour season after firing seven birdies and an eagle on the fifth hole.

''I knew this week that par-5 scoring would be big to your ultimate performance,'' he said. ''I hit a beautiful drive on No. 5 and hit a nice little 3-hybrid in there and managed to get it back there kind of close and made a nice putt. Obviously, it was a day where a lot of good things happened and definitely nice to get off to a good start.''

Knox suffered a disappointing end to the previous season after missing out on the FedEx Cup playoffs, having qualified the previous six years. He used his time to best effect preparing for the Safeway Open and adjusting to new coach Mark McCann.

''I've worked as hard as I ever have the last two weeks before this event, so it's really nice to see something good happen immediately. 'I definitely feel like my game is heading in the right direction.''

Sam Burns, Cameron Percy and Bo Hoag are tied a shot back at 64 and two times past champion Brendan Steele and Pat Perez are tied at 65.

Burns followed up an eagle on the 16th with an unfortunate bogey on 17 when he missed a 7-foot putt but rallied with a birdie at 18 to get to 8-under.

''My iron play was good, made some good putts,'' he said. ''Unfortunately, kind of a bad bogey on 17 but overall a good day.''

Phil Mickelson warmed up for next week's U.S. Open with a 71.

''The best way to get ready for Winged Foot is to play well here,'' he said. ''These fairways are tighter and more difficult to hit than what we'll have next week. But the rough is going to be a lot more penalizing next week so it's a great way to work on driving, work on your golf swing.''

Play was delayed in the morning due to fog and some late starters were unbale to finish their rounds. Thick smoke from fires has filled the sky for the past two weeks and heavy ash fell earlier in the week.

''Yesterday was very uncomfortable,'' Steele said. ''I hadn't seen anything like that as far as playing golf in it. I've been around too many fires in my time, but yeah, with the ash coming down and just how dark it was. I mean, (noon) there's lights on the putting green. That's not a normal occurrence for us. It really affected me yesterday, too. I didn't feel right all day.''