The PGA Tour continues this week as it visits Torrey Pines Golf Course for the 2022 Farmers Insurance Open. Read on below to see my prediction for who will win the tournament, as well as my predictions for who will finish in the top 10, my dark horse, and my player to fade.
Winner: Tony Finau- Finau has had a quiet start to the 2021-2022 season, with 1 top 20 and 4 made cuts in 5 starts. Nonetheless, Finau comes into one of his best events on the PGA Tour, as Finau has 4 top 6 finishes and 7 top 25 finishes in 7 career starts at Torrey Pines. Also worth noting is that Finau’s most recent win came in a Monday finish at The Northern Trust, which makes Finau’s chances look even stronger with this week’s tournament concluding on Saturday. The recent results may not be there, but Finau’s past success will propel him to a victory this week!
Top 10: Jon Rahm- The number one ranked player in the world, Rahm has fared very well at Torrey Pines, with 1 win, 3 top 5’s, and 4 top 10’s in 5 tournament starts, plus a win at The U.S. Open held here last year. Rahm is 7th in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee and 12th in Strokes Gained: Approach-The-Green, both of which are important when playing a course like Torrey Pines. With 2 top 15 finishes to begin 2022, Rahm will be a threat to win this week and another top 10 finish in this event is a lock for Rahm.
Dark Horse: Ryan Palmer- Palmer had a pretty quiet season in 2020-2021, with just 4 top 10’s in 23 starts. Those 4 top 10’s were capped off by a T-2 finish in this event. Palmer has played well of late at Torrey Pines, finishing in the top 21 each of the last 4 years, including 2 runner-up finishes. Palmer has had 3 straight top 30 finishes in his last 3 PGA Tour starts and there is no reason to believe he won’t bring home another top 30 finish by week’s end.
Player to Fade: Kamaiu Johnson- A veteran on the APGA Tour, Johnson has missed the cut in all 3 previous PGA Tour starts, with a best round of 77 and 3 rounds in the 80s across 6 rounds. Johnson was originally supposed to make his PGA Tour debut in this tournament last season, but had to withdraw due to testing positive for COVID-19. I don’t expect a year to have made much of a difference in Johnson’s play, who will easily miss the cut this week.