Procore Championship
Course: Silverado Resort North Course (7,138 yards, par 72)
Purse: $6,000,000
Winner: $1,080,000 and 500 FedExCup Fall Points
Tournament Preview
The FedExCup might have been handed out a few weeks ago at East Lake, but the Procore Championship starts the beginning of a 7-tournament stretch this fall where the membership for the 2026 PGA Tour season is determined. In recent years the fight was always to be inside the Top 125 to secure full status for the next season. Now it will be even more competitive as only the Top 100 in the FedExCup Fall standings will be assured of full playing status in 2026.
For anyone who made the BMW Championship by being inside the Top 50 in the FedExCup last season, they are still allowed to play in fall events, but just will not be able to accrue any FedExCup Fall points. They will still be able to accrue official money and OWGR points for each of the events on the fall portion of the PGA Tour schedule.
The Procore Championship will be the best field we see all fall on the PGA Tour and there's a very good reason for that. 10 of the 12 American players that were selected for the Ryder Cup Team are teeing it up in Napa to try and stay in competitive form prior to heading to Bethpage in a couple weeks. Last Ryder Cup in Rome the U.S. Team was crushed by the European Team, and many in the team room felt that a big reason was that many U.S. players had a full month off from competitive golf, while many European players were busy playing the DP World Tour after the conclusion of the TOUR Championship. The top U.S. players certainly are trying to make sure rust isn't a factor at Bepthage.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will lead the way this week coming in as nearly a 2-1 favorite for his tournament debut. Russell Henley, Justin Thomas, J.J. Spuan, Collin Morikawa and Harris English round out the rest of the top-10 ranked players from the U.S. Ryder Cup Team in this field. Apart from Bryson DeChambeau, who can't play in PGA Tour events because of his association with LIV Golf, Xander Schauffele is the only member of the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup Team who will not be teeing it up in Napa. U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley is not playing this week either, but you can bet he will have a very close eye on what is happening in Northern California and hoping to see lots of his team near the top of the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon.
As mentioned previously, none of the players on the Ryder Cup team will have any concerns this week apart from trying to get their game dialed in for Bethpage. That said, most of the 144 players in Napa will be focused on collecting FedExCup points to try and put themselves in a better spot to secure full playing status for 2026. Taylor Moore comes into the week at No. 100 in the standings by one point over Vince Whaley. There is plenty of time for things to shift throughout the course of this fall portion of the schedule, but if you're one of the players around the 100th spot you certainly want to kick things off with a strong week.
Spots No. 101-125 after the FedExCup Fall will earn conditional status on the PGA Tour next season. The reduction was done to give players who advance from the Korn Ferry Tour, DP World Tour and PGA Tour Q-School a better chance of getting into full field events early in the season. All 70 players who qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs are all guaranteed full playing status for 2026, but they will also be battling to be in the Aon Next 10 from the fall and finish No. 51-60 in the FedExCup Fall standings. That would assure them eligibility into the first two signature events next season being the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational. Stepha Jaeger holds the final spot in the Aon Next 10 over Davis Riley as of now.
The weather for the Procore Championship looks very nice this week. Temperatures for each of the four rounds will top out in the upper-70s to low-80s with very little threat of precipitation. Winds are expected to average between 10-12 mph throughout the four tournament rounds, with spike points each afternoon of around 20 mph for gusts. That will be enough to create a solid challenge for all the top ranked Ryder Cup players in this field ahead of Bethpage in a couple weeks. Something in the mid-to-high teen's under-par is likely going to be what it takes to win.
Recent Champions
2024 - Patton Kizzire (-20)
2023 - Sahith Theegala (-21)
2022 - Max Homa (-16)
2021 - Max Homa (-19)
2020 - Stewart Cink (-21)
2019 - Cameron Champ (-17)
2018 - Kevin Tway (-14)
2017 - Brendan Steele (-15)
2016 - Brendan Steele (-18)
2015 - Emiliano Grillo (-15)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/Rough Proximity
- SG: Putting/Putts per GIR
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
- Par-5 Scoring
Champion's Profile
The North Course at Silverado has some of the narrowest fairways on the entire PGA Tour schedule. It's annually among the lowest courses of the year in terms of fairways hit, but is also not that difficult in terms of approaching the greens. That tells me that the rough is generally pretty easy to play out of, as long as there are no trees in your way. Players of any length can have success here, but I do tend to favor the longer hitters given how hard it is for the field to hit fairways in general. Proximity on approach from the rough also should be a key stat to look at.
Reports are that these Poa annua-bentgrass putting surfaces could reach up to 12.5 on the Stimpmeter this week, which is about a foot longer than many previous setups. That will be determined mostly by the wind, but clearly they are looking to step up the challenge on the greens. I think some of the top putters in the field have to be excited about that. I also think par-5 scoring will be a key factor in determining the winner. There are four very reachable par-5s at Silverado, three of which come on the final seven holes. The opportunities are clearly there to make some eagles, which goes a long way in DFS contests.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Justin Thomas ($11,800)
Thomas' appearances at Silverado have been spread out, but he's been a factor almost every time he has come here. The 16-time PGA Tour winner owns four top-8 finishes in Napa, gaining strokes both on approach and with the putter in all of those. Thomas has been a little up-and-down over the last couple months, but his struggles off the tee shouldn't cost him too much at this venue. You also know he's ready to kick things into high gear with the Ryder Cup upcoming. He's been the best American player in these team competitions over the better part of the last decade.
Patrick Cantlay ($11,100)
Cantlay is coming off one of the best approach weeks of his career at the TOUR Championship where he ended up in a share of second place. He also has gained strokes on the greens in each of his last three starts after struggling somewhat in that category over the summer. Cantlay is a California native that is very familiar with these Poa annua greens. He's played here twice previously, including a T17 in 2018. Cantlay should be in the mix come Sunday given how well he has hit the ball throughout the season.
Cameron Young ($10,700)
I love the value you're getting with Young here. Outside of Scottie Scheffler and maybe Tommy Fleetwood, there hasn't really been a hotter player over the last several weeks. He's finished 11th-or-better in his last four starts, including three top-5s and a win in Greensboro. Young's got the ideal power to attack these par-5s, he ranks sixth on the season in SG: Putting and has taken big strides in his approach play, which in my mind really led to his selection to the Ryder Cup team.
The Middle Tier
Maverick McNealy ($10,400)
There's really not a need for McNealy to play this week after making his first TOUR Championship a few weeks ago, but I think he probably has more motivation than anyone in this field to go out there and win. McNealy was probably the biggest American snub from the from the Ryder Cup team. He turned in a great season with five top-5 finishes, but just missed the cut for Keegan Bradley's squad. I think McNealy comes out and wants to make a statement that he should've been at Bethpage. He finished second at Silverado back in 2021 and Napa is very close to home for him.
Jackson Koivun ($10,000)
Koivun is a future star of the PGA Tour and he's played like it whenever he has gotten to play on the PGA Tour. He's gone T11-T6-T5 in his last three starts, and is coming off a Walker Cup victory last week at Cypress Point where he went 3-1. I think that also goes a long way considering the majority of this field hasn't played competitive golf since early August. Koivun's driving and putting is ready for a full PGA Tour schedule whenever he decides to do so.
Sami Valimaki ($9,700)
Valimaki did not make the FedExCup Playoffs, but he stayed busy on the DP World Tour collecting a T8 at the Danish Golf Championship and then a T2 at the Omega European Masters. Two things you've been able to count on all year from Valimaki has been strong iron play and a hot putter. Both of those should serve hime quite well at Silverado as he makes his tournament debut.
The Long Shots
Hayden Springer ($8,500)
On a week where it's hard to tell current form for a lot of players, Springer has been consistently making weekend's the last several months. He has made the cut in eight of his last nine starts, including top-25s in three of his last four. Springer ranks top-30 in driving distance, SG: Putting and putts per GIR this season. He's also top-15 in eagle average and par-5 scoring.
David Lipsky ($8,200)
Lipsky had a rough 2025 season for the most part, but he finally started to get things going right before this recent break. He finished top-3 at the John Deere Classic and the 3M Open, while also making his last five cuts on Tour. During that stretch Lipsky has been very accurate off the tee, consistently gaining on approach and been much better on and around the greens. Lipsky also ranks top-15 on Tour in par-5 scoring.
Trevor Cone ($7,500)
My deep dart throw of the week is Cone because of this certain combination at Silverado. He ranks 10th this season in driving distance and leads the PGA Tour in rough proximity. He'll be able to use much the same formula that bombers like Kevin Tway, Cameron Champ and Sahith Theegala have used over recent years here to win. It's been a bad year overall for Cone, but he was playing his best right before the playoffs.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
The $3,200 price gap from Scottie Scheffler to the second-highest option in Justin Thomas is the largest I can ever remember seeing on a FanDuel contest. Starting with Scheffler means you will only have an average of $9,000 per player to use on your last five selections. Given the fact that Scheffler has never played here before, I think it's better to pass on him this week, as hard as that might be to do. I've always found the Procore Championship to be one of the toughest weeks of the year to feel confident about a lineup considering that the majority of the field has not played golf since the Wyndham Championship in early August. That's a lot of time off for golfers to take from competition. Some of these players have played in recent weeks either on the DP World Tour, Korn Ferry Tour or in amateur golf competition, and I think it wouldn't be a bad strategy to lean on that. Overall, I'm looking for traits I like this week. Players who drive the ball long, are good out of the rough and have excelled with the putter is where I am leaning.
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