PHOTOS: California fires, smoke leave eerie haze over Safeway Open
Players had no choice but to look at the orange sky Wednesday morning.
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Wildfires are ravaging various parts of California and the west coast, which is exactly where the PGA Tour is this week — and you can see it in the photos.
The Safeway Open, which kicks off the 2021 Tour season in Napa, Calif., is currently being played under an orange haze due to nearby fires and the smoke and ash that have flooded the air. The visibility in Napa was impacted so much that tournament officials have set up lights around practice green and driving range Wednesday.
Mid-August thunderstorms are the culprit for the fires as lightning strikes northeast of Silverado Country Club have led to widespread destruction. Fires have burned in the vicinity for more than three weeks now, but as of Wednesday morning were 91 percent contained, making it one of the lesser at-risk areas in the state, relatively speaking. Elsewhere, forest fires continue to blaze.
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So Silverado CC, where Cameron Champ captured an emotional victory in 2019, will look very different this week, with a sepia tone blanketing the grounds. Air quality in the area has improved to a “moderate” rating, but visibility is still clearly an issue. As of noon, lights around the practice facilities were still on out of necessity. But without immediate risk to the tournament grounds, the event intends to go on as planned. As has become customary in the summer of 2020, there will be no spectators allowed on-site.
This is not the first time that fires have encroached upon Silverado CC. In October of 2017, pros were forced to evacuate immediately on Monday morning following the tournament as fires forced a state of emergency in the area. Kyle Thompson described the frenzied evacuation to GOLF.com at the time.
Peruse the photos below for a sense of what Tour pros will be seeing this week in California.
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