{"id":5867,"date":"2023-01-24T01:48:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T01:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/?post_type=article&p=5867"},"modified":"2023-01-31T08:26:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T08:26:51","slug":"2023-farmers-insurance-open-torrey-pines-preview","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/article\/2023-farmers-insurance-open-torrey-pines-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Farmers Insurance Open – Torrey Pines Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The PGA Tour’s west coast swing continues this week on Wednesday with the Farmers Insurance Open featuring the scenic Torrey Pines South Golf Course in La Jolla, California. Torrey Pines has hosted this event every year since 1968. Torrey Pines sits on one of the scenic golf course sites in America, atop coastal bluffs north of San Diego with dazzling views of the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lying on land that was occupied by an anti-aircraft battery during World War II, thanks to the frequent morning fog delays and early sunsets, there will be two courses utilized this week. Both are owned and maintained by the City of San Diego. Golfers will play both the North and South courses one time before the cut on Friday. Only the South course will be used on the weekend. While the North course plays much easier and is more tree-lined, the South course sits much closer to the Pacific bringing possible weather effects into play. It is a massively lengthy track. In fact, it is the longest annual Tour course in the rotation, stretching over 7,700 yards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than the one round on the North Course, the scoring this week will be the complete opposite of the birdie-fests we have seen for the first three events of this year. The South Course is the seventh-most difficult course on Tour. The course provides no let-up and players will need to use every club in their bag. Even though it\u2019s played at sea level, Torrey Pines plays even longer than the scorecard yardage due to softer fairways and the cooler January air. Every golfer will need to dust off the cobwebs from their long irons because they will be needed at Torrey Pines. Winning scores at this event have been 15-under par or less in nine of the past ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is definitely a “sticky” course when looking at the type of players who have success here. Par will be a good score on a majority of the holes played. With it being such a long course, bombers have a definite advantage, yet the winners’ list has also been filled with elite scramblers and poa putting specialists. Ideally, you want to target players who are long and accurate off the tee and who also excel with their short game, particularly on Poa greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It’s the first tough test of the new calendar year and numerous big names have shown up to take on the challenge. Along with last week’s winner, Jon Rahm, other top-20 players in attendance include Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris, Tony Finau, Max Homa, Sungjae Im, and Hideki Matsuyama. Last year’s winner, Luke List also returns along with past champions Justin Rose, Jason Day, Scott Stallings, and Nick Watney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to this not being an elevated event, there are, however, a good number of top players who fit Torrey Pines that are sitting this one out. Because of this, the field lacks the depth of years past. The tournament will be played from Wednesday to Saturday for the second consecutive year to appease the NFL playoff schedule. We are back to a standard 36-hole cut this week with the top 65 and ties playing the weekend. Only the South Course is equipped with ShotLink data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Torrey Pines Course History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the most famous municipal golf properties in the country, Torrey Pines was designed by William Bell in 1957. Located at the previous site of Camp Callan, a U.S. Army installation, it was built on a tract of land with mountains to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1968, Torrey Pines has hosted the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open, which was originally known as the San Diego Open. During its first few decades, the South Course was around 6,850 yards. The South Course was first renovated in the late 1970s by local hero Billy Casper in the late 1970s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was then completely redesigned by Rees Jones in 2001. Jones moved multiple greens, doubled the number of bunkers, added ten new tee boxes, and extended the yardage to a whopping 7,607 yards. He also brought several coastal canyons into play, namely on the 3rd and 14th holes. The goal was to make the course more competitive for the modern-day player. Jones’s efforts were rewarded as the course hosted the 2008 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again in 2019, Rees Jones completed another renovation of the South Course. Bunkers were shifted and refurbished on five different holes. Greens were repositioned closer to canyons to bring more of an element of danger into play. Jones also extended the course another 150+ yards. Two years after this renovation, the South Course was again awarded the U.S. Open in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the North Course, it stood the test of time until it was finally renovated in 2016 by Tom Weiskopf. He overhauled the greens and created more challenging pin positions, eliminated more than a dozen bunkers, and flipped the nines so that the routing now finishes along the coast. He also stretched the course out to its current length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finish Position and Strokes Gained Course(s) History (2015-2022)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Torrey Pines – South Course<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Enormous length, narrow fairways, deep rough, criminally-tough greens on which to putt. These are just a few of the ways to describe the South Course. While mostly flat, at 7,765 yards, Torrey Pines is a monster and the longest on Tour. Winds off the coast can also severely hamper a round. Xander Schauffele commented about both of these factors. “It\u2019s brutal. It\u2019s mentally exhausting. The place is a hike. Just everything about it. When the wind picks up, you\u2019re just worn out at the end of the day.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past five years, it’s also played as the ninth-toughest course at 0.55 strokes over par. Almost every metric is tougher here. From scrambling to fairways hit to GIR % – all are significantly lower here than the average PGA Tour course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From an agronomy standpoint, greens are Poa annua. Fairways and rough are a ryegrass overseed. Thru the first three weeks of 2023, the Torrey Pines area has received 4.83 inches of rain potentially making the course play much softer than the firm and fast conditions it is known for. Torrey is infamous for its thick penal rough. This year, it looks as though the players will be in for a real treat because when you add water, the rough becomes even more difficult to play from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For the tournament, our goal is to really have dry conditions. We like the fairways to be firm and fast, and we like to see a bounce in the greens, says Scott Bentley the Deputy Director Golf Division for San Diego. “We do expect the rough to be long and lush,” says Bentley. “Maybe a little bit more than in past years because of the rain, so that will present a challenge for the players.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of agronomy, Devin Cullen, expounded even further on the soft conditions by saying, \u201cFollowing the holiday season, frequent rain events hit the property. We have seen years with precipitation totals much higher than what we are seeing, but it is the frequency and consistency that these storms have hit that have given the property little time to dry down. With a few rain events still projected between now and the tournament, I\u2019m expecting the course to play longer and thicker than it already does.
Should be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Winners at Torrey Pines have typically fallen into two classifications – either bombers off the tee or players with elite short-game skills. From the bomber category, we have seen Luke List, Justin Rose, Jon Rahm, Scott Stallings, Tiger Woods, and Bubba Watson triumph. On the short-game side, Patrick Reed, Jason Day, Brandt Snedeker (twice), and Ben Crane. Interestingly, many of the bombers also have quality short games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This par-72 layout has seven par-4s that play over 450 yards and two par-5s that measure over 615 yards. Golfers must take advantage of the four par-5s as they are generally the only birdie holes on the course, and possibly the only holes that will play under par for the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the setting on the coast is fantastic, there is a lack of compelling hole architecture throughout Torrey Pines. The South Course often is criticized for not “architecturally” standing out enough. Almost each of the Par-4 and Par-5 holes is seemingly a replica of itself. It is definitely very straightforward. There are no tricks. What you see is what you get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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