After what must be the shortest pre-season in PGA Tour history, the new campaign begins in California on Thursday, with the fifth staging of the Safeway Open.
Less than 72 hours after Dustin Johnson was crowned FedEx Cup champion in Atlanta, the new season opens in Napa Valley.
The season-opening Safeway Open is taking place at Silverado Country Club, a course which first appeared on the PGA Tour schedule during the 1960s.
In recent years it has been a haven for the big hitters. The absent defending champ is Cameron Champ, who topped last year's Driving Distance category on the PGA Tour and is second only to Bryson DeChambeau in 2020.
Before Champ lifted the trophy, Kevin Tway took the honours, following in the footsteps of Brendan Steele who won back-to-back at Silverado in 2016 and 2017. Tway and Steele are no slouches off the tee either, and both are in the field again this week.
And the stats for Silverado are pretty interesting. It appears to be a course where hitting fairways is not as vital as on other layouts.
Check out the latest betting ahead of this week's Safeway Open
Only two of the top 12 finishers in 2019 found more than 55% of fairways over 72 holes. Champ hit 53% but still managed to find 73% of Greens in Regulation. Runner-up Adam Hadwin had figures of 52% (DA) - 80% (GiR).
It was a similar story in 2018, while the tournament average for Driving Accuracy over the past four seasons was around 10% lower than the Tour average.
Over the same four seasons, the tournament average for hitting Greens in Regulation at Silverado was approximately 16-17% higher than for finding its fairways. Make of that what you will.
Course history
Located around 50 miles north-east of San Francisco, and 60 miles west of Sacramento, Silverado is a resort course where the weather remains fairly hot most of the year.
The North Course, on which the tournament is being played, opened for business in 1955 before being re-designed by Robert Trent Jones junior 11 years later.
It underwent another, less rigorous, upgrade less than a decade ago when two-time major winner Johnny Miller added approximately 250 yards to its length, widened a few fairways and repositioned a number of bunkers.
These more recent changes prepared the course for its return to the PGA Tour schedule in October 2014.
The North Course had previously been part of the calendar between 1968 and 1980, when it hosted the Kaiser International Open which later became the Anheuser-Busch Classic.
It is largely a flat, parkland layout, with plenty of trees. The Bent and Poa Annua greens are usually quick and undulating, although water is only an issue on two or three holes.
The majority of those teeing-up failed to reach the latter stages of the recent FedEx Cup Play-Offs.
With the US Open looming next week, the leading group are having a week's break before heading to Winged Foot for the second major championship of 2020.
On the starting line
Those who did play competitively last week were taking part in the Lincoln Land Championship, part of the Korn Ferry Tour.
The busy Si Woo Kim is in action yet again, while Harold Varner might offer some value as he chases a maiden PGA Tour title. Varner's sole professional success came in Australia, nearly four years ago.
The 30-year-old from Ohio played well at Sedgefield in mid-August and has a solid record in the Safeway Open.
Matt Kuchar, who failed to qualify for the Tour Championship, is the 'top seed' and one of only two members of the world's top 40 in attendance.
Twitter: Andy Swales@GolfStatsAlive
MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut
Note: List Contains Leading Reserves