Farmers Insurance Open

The west coast swing has proved to be very exciting as of late. Last week the tour left Hawaii and headed to California for The American Express Championship. Last week Hudson Swafford claimed his third PGA Tour victory. While Swafford and his family were all smiles after the win, world number one Jon Rahm was not pleased with the setup of the golf course. Rahm was furious the entire week. Finally on Sunday he said, “Golf courses need to test every part of their game, not just one.” The golf course last week was much easier than most of the tour stops. Players could pretty much hit it anywhere without trouble and the tournament ultimately became a putting contest. For once I agree with Rahm. I hate seeing 20+ under win a golf tournament, that’s not how golf is meant to be watched or played frankly. On top of that it’s extremely boring to watch in the long run. Historically Rahm is a complainer, but his complaints this week hold a ton of weight. I hope in the future the tour continues to find new ways to make the golf courses more challenging for the player and test them on every level of their games. 

This week the west coast swing continues as the PGA Tour heads to Torrey Pines for the Farmers Insurance Open. Now this marks one year since Patrick Reed’s controversy surrounding his win last year. If you remember Reed believed his ball had plugged in the rough after video evidence revealed the ball had already bounced. Now after a ball has bounces it becomes highly unlikely for the ball to then plug into the ground. The controversy rises when Reed decides to pick up the ball and take relief without confirming with a rules official or his playing partners. By the time the rules official actually arrived Reed already had his ball in his hand and was taking relief. The videos surrounding this incident were bizarre because nobody really knew how to act. The rules official was stunned that Reed did not wait for him or playing partner. This is when the masses became bothered and triggered by the situation. Upon completion of the ruling the rules official did not penalize Reed for the infraction. It’s clear that Reed was trying to pull a fast one and get away with giving himself a better lie. At the very least he should have received a two shot penalty for touching his ball without informing his group or playing partners that his ball was in fact embedded. The biggest issue behind this was that Reed is known for this kind of behavior; he has been caught numerous times bending the rules to his own favor. Nevertheless players did not outright condemn him, but deep down I’m sure a lot of the players had some not so nice things to say about the situation. Hopefully Reed can manage to keep the negative press off of him this time around.

As we get closer to the start of the event I’m indifferent about Torrey Pines. Personally I found it to be a very boring golf course, and on top of that we see it every year so it becomes less and less impressive. It becomes even less impressive when we see it twice in the same year like we saw last year when the U.S. Open was there as well as the Farmers. Nonetheless the field this year is extremely solid. World Number one Jon Rahm looks to add another victory at Torrey Pines to his resume. On top of that this is the first full field event for many of the top ranked players. This week fans will be able to watch Dustin Johnson, Max Homa, Daniel Berger, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Bryson Dechambeau and Jordan Spieth. Among those greats, a ton of stand out rookies will also be competent such as Cameron Young, Davis Riley, Hayden Buckley, Lee Hodges and Greyson Sigg. As you all remember Lee Hodges had a great chance to win last week at the American Express but came up just short. These young guys have come to play this year and the race for Rookie of The Year should get extremely interesting as the season rolls on. I’m most curious to see Dustin Johnson play. From his own personal standards last year was not his greatest year so expect him to come out firing and ready to get the year off to a hot start. Also expect Jordan to continue his stellar play and roll that confidence over from last year. 

This week I’m expecting a rookie to win. The reason I say that is because at Torrey Pines whether you are on the North Or South course, precision off the tee doesn’t matter. As a benchmark, during Tiger Woods’ wins at Torrey Pines he ranked in the bottom half of strokes gained off the tee. Which leads me to believe that there are so many other opportunities to pick up strokes around the golf course. The most important thing for players this week is long iron approach shots. Many times players will be faced with long iron approach shots; this is that stat line that separates a winner from the rest of the field. Players that thrive in their strokes gained when approaching the green will find themselves very successful this week. Which further proves that great iron players such as Rahm, Berger, and Justin Thomas tend to thrive at a course like this. With all that being said I really like Justin Thomas to win this week. He’s a great ball striker and as long as his putter is on I firmly believe he will make a run at the title, but we all know how good these players are and these days every player in the field has a chance to win. (Mike)