First Cut- Farmers Insurance Open
Whether this is your first time reading, or you’re a Tour Vet, the First Cut should have something for you. In this “First Cut,” we’ll cover a wide variety of topics in a short amount of time! Ultimately this article should serve as a guide for the week and what’s to come.
Here’s what you can expect to see in the article:
- Tournament Intro
- Course Preview= By the Numbers, Course Guide
- DFS-Preview- Sweat-sheet/Contest Preview
- Statistical & Player Preview
Tournament Intro:
The tour heads just a couple hours south of Palm Springs to the always beautiful and Sunny San Diego. It is a 72-hole, stroke-play event with 156 players and a cut to the low 70 and ties after 36 holes. The tournament originated as the San Diego Open in 1952 and used that name through 1985. In 1968, the event began its present relationship with Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, a 36-hole public facility owned by the City of San Diego. In the current tournament set-up, players split the first 36 holes between the North and South Courses, then play the final 36 holes on the South Course.
This Week’s Course: Torrey Pines Golf Course
Unlike many of the pristine private courses or TPC courses, the tour regularly stops at, this week is unique. Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal public golf facility, owned by the city of San Diego, California, technically making it a “muni.” For those of you that don’t know what that means in golf terms, it means that really anyone can play the course. Much like Bethpage its “sister” ‘muni’ located out in Long Island, Torrey has its own set of tee time rules. On weekends, individuals arrive as early as the night before to get in line for the first-come-first-served tee times which are awarded from sunrise until the first reserved tee time at 730.
Both courses have bumpy poa annua grass for their greens (though the North course uses a blend of Poa annua and bentgrass) making the putting much more difficult than last week’s immaculate greens on all three of the featured courses for the CareerBuilder Challenge.
Of the two courses, The North course is easier, but with the recent renovations, it made it considerably harder. All the par 5s are reachable in two, however. The fairways are tight (something most pros love) and the rough although on the thick side is mitigated by the large greens.
In 2008, the South Course hosted the U.S. Open, won by Tiger Woods in a playoff.
History and Course Designer
Redesigned by Tom Weiskopf in 2016, switching the front nine with the back nine so that the famous ocean views are now enjoyed by golfers finishing their rounds. *North Course
William P. Bell (1957, son of noted course architect William P. Bell), Rees Jones redesign (2001)* South Course
Course by the Numbers:
South Course – 7,698 yards, Par 72 (36-36)Played 3 of the four days.
The South course is a 7,700-yard par 72 with four par 3s and four par 5s. It’s the most prolonged, non-US Open course played by the PGA Tour. The South fairways are also very tight and surrounded by heavy bunkering. The greens on the South course are petite in comparison to the North and are generally below average on Tour and feature greenside bunkering.
Course architects: South Course – William P. Bell (1957, son of noted course architect William P. Bell), Rees Jones redesign (2001)
Grass – Poa annua greens, rye and Kikuyu rough at 3.5 inches;
(replaced bentgrass greens with Poa annua after 2012)
Last years #s:
- Scoring Average:
- South- 72.813 (+.813)
- North- 71.41 (-.209)
- Yearly Ranking:
- 8/52- South
- 28/52- North
- Winning Score: -10
- Top 5 Score- -8
- Cut Number- – Even
- Easiest Hole: 6th Hole
- hardest Hole: 12th hole
- Best Chance at Streaks: 6,7,8??? Tough this week…
DFS Sweatsheet & Scorecard
DFS Preview:
A full preview on the best contests offered in the industry this week.
Tiger gives quite the boost to DK contests with over 1M GTD in the big three:
DraftKings/FanDuel/Yahoo
Player & Statistical Preview:
Player Preview:
This space will merely highlight the golfers competing and their OWGR. For full-field regular events we’ll list out the top 25 ranked golfers by OWGR:
This Weeks top 25:
Statistical Preview:
The PGA Tour has a set of “statistics” that measure golfers performances vs. each other/the rest of the field. Here is the information on “Strokes Gained” from the winners of the Farmers Insurance Open over the last five years:
Average: 1.09
Commentary:
Since we see winning scores here quite often in the single digits, SG #’s just aren’t as large as they are at some other events, due to score parity. The other thing that makes this even more difficult is the fact that we saw winners over the last five years get it does just about every single way. Stallings and Snedker with the flat stick. Day (2015) and Rahm ball striking, while Tiger and Day (2018) gained strokes in every category.
Bogey Avoidance is another stat that will be important this week especially for golfers just trying to make the weekend.
Need help with your cash game advice?! Be sure to check out our cash game preview “Make the Cut” out on Tuesday morning!
For now, that’s all. I’ll be updating the article the more info we get!
Until then,
Cheers! As always message me on Twitter or in the Slack Channel if you have any questions.