Historic Torrey Pines will host the Farmers Insurance Open once again as golf season is in full swing now with the tour “matriculating” on the California Swing. The Farmers begins today and will conclude on Saturday so the tournament wants to not coincide with the NFC and AFC Championship Games on Sunday.
Last week at the American Express, 20 year old University of Alabama sophomore Nick Dunlap captured the title with a 5 foot nine inch par putt on 18 to hold off 29 year old South African Christian Bezuldenhout by a shot to become the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson did it in 1991, 33 years ago. at the Northern Telecom Open in Phoenix. Now Dunlap is pondering whether to join the PGA Tour or remain an amateur. When he becomes a professional, he is exempt in all events up to 2026. If he joins this year, he can play in 3 of the 4 majors, the Masters, the PGA Championship, and the U.S, Open. He would not qualify for the Open Championship. If he played as an amateur, he would be eligible for all majors except the PGA Championship. He is the reigning U.S. Amateur champion. He finished -29 for the Amex, one shot clear of the South African. Quite a feat. There is no guarantee any young player is going to be super elite as a professional, but that’s quite a start for a 20 year old amateur. If he stays at Alabama this season he will get NIL deals with adidas and other sponsors, so that should be a nice deal as well. The Huntsville native is weighing his options. He shot a 12 under par 60 on Saturday and two under par 70 on Sunday.
Onto this week.
The pros will play two courses, Torrey Pines North (7,258 yards, par 72) and the epic Torrey Pines South Course (7,765 yards, par 72). The first two rounds will be played on both courses as the players split between the two and the final two days will be played exclusively on the South Course. the Poa Anuua greens will be stimping up to 14, very quick. The rough will on the South Course will be up to 4 inches.
The defending champion is Max Homa, who is in the field.
It’s been an interesting year and a half in golf with the LIV Tour raiding the PGA Tour for another player when it secured Jon Rahm in December. That’s a blow, but you look at the PGA Tour and there still are many elite players. The LIV and PGA are trying to come to an agreement and become one entity, but it’s a time consuming process. The PGA is moving on with the guys on its roster. You still have Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, and many more competing in all of the new signature events and the majors and other regular events. The Signature events this season are eight tournaments consisting of 70 to 80 players with the 50 top players from the Fed Ex Cup in 2023 competing with 20 to 30 other qualifiers in other ways. The events have purses of $20-25 million with first place paying $3.6 M. Chris Kirk has already won the first Signature event at the Sentry in Maui earlier this month. The seven other events are the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Jan. 29th-Feb 4th, The Genesis Invitational Feb. 15th-18th, the Arnie March, 7th-10th, the RBC Heritage April 18-21st, the Wells Fargo May 9th-12th, the Memorial June 6th-9th, and the Travelers Championship June 20th-23rd. The 50th Players Championship’s purse is $25 M with the winner earns $4.5 M. That stellar event will be played March 14th-17th. The 88th edition of the Masters is April 11th-14th. The 106th PGA Championship will be played at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville May 16th-19th. The 124th U.S, Open is June 13th-16th at Pinehurst No.2, and the 152nd Open Championship is July 18th-21st at Royal Troon. The Fed Ex Cup with a $25 million payout for first place consists of three events: the Fed Ex St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Aug 15th-18th, the BMW Championship Aug 22nd-25th, at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colorago, and the Tour Championship at East Lake Aug 29th-Sept 1st. The Fed Ex St. Jude and BMW both have $20 M purses with first place paying $3.6 M.
So, the tour is always stepping it up for the players. Not a bad deal if you work hard and can be successful.
Weather in El Diego
Today, 62, partly cloudy, wind SSW 7 MPH.
Thursday, 63, Partly sunny, wind SW 7
Friday, 67, partly sunny, wind NNW 8.
Saturday, 71, Partly sunny, N 7.
Television
Today-Thursday, 2-6 PM CT, Golf Channel
Friday, 2-4 PM CT Golf, 4-7 PM CBS
Saturday, 1-3 PM CT, Golf, 3-7 PM CBS.
Here are the odds for the Farmers:
Xander 9/1
Cantlay 10/1
Homa 10/1
Morikawa 11/1
Ludvig Aberg 20/1, 24 year old Swede who won the RSM Classic in Sea Island last November.
Sungjae Im 22/1
Min Woo Lee 22/1
Tony Finau 25/1
Jason Day 25/1
Keegan Bradley 33/1
Eric Cole 35/1
Sahith Theegala 40/1
Sepp Straka 45/1
Will Zalatoris 45/1
Hideki Matsuyama 45/1
Harris English 50/1
Justin Rose 50/1
Shane Lowry 60/1
Daniel Berger 65/1
Luke List 80/1
Winner
I’ll take the 30 year old native on San Diego on his home course. He finished T-3 last weekend at the Amex shooting 63-65 on Saturday and Sunday to finish -27 tied with JT and Kevin Yu. Interestingly, Dunlap, being an amateur, could not claim the first place prize money, so Bezuldenhouf took home the $1.5+ million check.
This still young, but now veteran stallion finished T2 in the 2021 Farmers and tied for 7th in the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey, which Rahm won. He has a T-10th and T-3rd to open the 2024 season. Give me: