Course Preview and Fits: Farmers Insurance Open

One week of Scottie Scheffler showing up, and one Scottie Scheffler victory. The generational run of golf continues. This week, however, we get to play “non-Scottie” PGA DFS, as the PGA Tour returns to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines for the 16th and final time (Farmers will no longer be the title sponsor in 2027). With another multi-course setup, the Farmers brings us a full 145-player field with 28 of the top 50 players in the world, including 12 of the top 25, and, perhaps more importantly, the 255th-ranked player in the OWGR, Brooks Koepka!

The Course:

For the second consecutive week, we are dealing with a multi-course setup. The primary course will, of course, be Torrey Pines South, while Torrey’s North Course will also be used for Rounds 1 and 2. Both courses will feature rye overseed in the rough and fairways, but players will have to deal with poa greens on the South course, while the North has bentgrass on the putting surfaces. Both courses will play as classic par 72 setups with four par 5s, four par 3s, and 10 par 4s, but the South will once again play as one of the longest on the PGA Tour at an absurd 7,765 yards, while the North will come in much shorter at 7,250.

Unlike the first two events of the calendar year, the Farmers profiles as a stiff test of ball striking, avoiding mistakes, and often hanging on down the closing stretch as the rough grows out and the setup gets harder. Since 2020, the winner has finished somewhere between -8 and -15, and when the wind gets gusty, we have seen some ridiculously hard scoring conditions atypical for regular PGA Tour events. Early-week forecasts look benign, and with an improved field, I would expect the winner to be near that -15 mark or better when it’s all said and done.