SAN DIEGO – Idyllic San Diego may be “America’s Finest City,” but the PGA Tour’s best and brightest should be forgiven for questioning that marketing moniker after another brutal trip around Torrey Pines’ South Course.
Perhaps it’s just too much of a good thing with the circuit making its second stop at Torrey Pines in less than a month after the devasting Los Angeles wildfires forced officials to relocate this week’s Genesis Invitational from Riviera Country Club to the storied South Course.
It seems like just yesterday when social media was spitting mad when the Tour opened the season with record scoring at Kapalua, as if Hideki Matsuyama’s 35-under winning total was an affront to the resort course with sprawling fairways and greens. But those days seem long gone following another round on the South Course.
Day 1’s scoring average (74.278) would rank as the most difficult test on Tour this season, just ahead of, wait for it … the South Course’s 73.685 scoring average from last month’s Farmers Insurance Open that currently paces the circuit in degree of difficulty.
“Very tough. I love it,” said Collin Morikawa, who opened with a 73 and was five shots off the lead held by Denny McCarthy. “It’s just a demanding golf course and you’ve got to hit fairways. Rough is up, you’ve got to hit the greens. You just love to come out to courses like this.
“You’ve got a few courses out there that are that difficult knowing that just no matter what you’re going to go out fighting and when you’ve got weather, wind like this, it makes it that much more challenging.”
Thursday’s conditions would be the outlier if not for last month’s stop along the cliffs that tower over Black’s Beach. A cold, steady rain pelted players the entire round and winds gusted to 25 mph to complete the blustery test. It should be no surprise that just 13 players out of the 72-man field managed to post under-par rounds.
“Today’s a challenging day and this is a golf course that challenges you in a variety of ways. I felt like I did a lot of good stuff out there, I got off to a really good start and hung in there from there,” said world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who rebounded from last week’s performance at the WM Phoenix Open with a first-round 70. “Weather conditions were changing a bunch and we dealt with a lot of different elements today, so overall it was a pretty solid day.”
Cold, wet, windy. Got it. But then the soggy signature event would have been challenging with these conditions even if it hadn’t been relocated from Riviera, but not like this. Thursday’s slog was complicated by the conditions but it’s not the rain and wind that make the South Course such a beast.
Just check the scorecard from last month’s Farmers Insurance Open, which was won by Harris English with a single-digit under par winning score (8 under). Unlike this week’s weather woes, the conditions were quintessentially San Diego for last month’s tournament with hard and fast fairways, firm greens and plenty of sunshine.
“It didn’t rain and it was much warmer, and it was the Santa Ana winds so the wind was coming from the opposite side. It was pretty different than last time,” said Michael Kim, who is tied for seventh at 1 under.
It’s been eight months since any significant rain fell in southern California and this week’s “atmospheric river” is the most precipitation the area has seen in a year.
Rain or shine, wind or warmth, the South Course stands alone on Tour as one of the most demanding tests.
“I think it’s really fun. I think on Tour sometimes you always see golf courses in their best conditions typically with the best weather. Besides on the west coast we typically travel around with the best weather, which it’s odd to come to California and typically receive some of the worst wetter,” Scheffler said. “I think it’s interesting. The only other time we really see weather like this would be The Open Championship. It’s fun, it’s a different test and I like the variety.”
With three more rounds awaiting on the South Course and an equally unpleasant forecast the idea that this particular brand of punishment is “fun” will likely be relative depending on who you ask, but there is no ambiguity when it comes to Torrey Pines and one of the game’s most difficult tests.
