The PGA Tour continues on this week as it visits Torrey Pines Golf Course for the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open. Per usual, the two host courses will be the North Course and South Course at Torrey Pines. Both courses were designed by William P. Bell and William F. Bell in 1957, with the North Course playing as a Par 72, 7,258 yard layout and the South Course playing a stout 7,765 yard layout this week. Players will play both courses over their first two rounds, while those who make the cut will play the South Course for each of their final two rounds. This event serves as an anomaly on tour, as it plays from Wednesday-Saturday in order to accommodate CBS and Jim Nantz’s broadcast coverage of the AFC Championship on Sunday,
With the South Course serving as one of the longest courses on the schedule, players who are long from the tee and in good form with their long irons are going to be primed for success this week. A lot of approaches will be in the 150-225 yard range, which is much longer than your standard 9-iron most weeks. Length will matter this week, but so will accuracy, as the infamous kikuyu rough will instantly derail a player’s drive (I crack myself up.) for success. If a player misses the green, they better be a good scrambler, as bogey can easily be a good score if their approach shot goes too wayward. To win on tour, players have to make their birdie attempts, but this week, scoring isn’t necessarily as vital compared to other stops. With 11 of the last 12 winners finishing at -15 or worse for the week, it’s more important to avoid the bogey, as birdies will come at a premium and bogeys are truly lurking at every corner.
The field for this week’s Farmers Insurance Open may not be as strong as in past years, but it still has a lot of fire power teeing it up, including Hideki Matsuyama, Ludvig Åberg, Keegan Bradley, Sahith Theegala, Sungjae Im and Aaron Rai, as well as other rising stars and veterans such as Maverick McNealy, Max Greyserman, Jason Day, Justin Rose and Luke Clanton, just to name a few.
The Farmers Insurance Open dates back to 1952 and has been held annually at Torrey Pines since 1968, making it one of the longest-active non-major tournaments on tour. With history comes legends, and this event has plenty of legends, with Tiger Woods finding victory here seven times (eight if you include his iconic victory in the 2008 U. S. Open) in his career and Phil Mickelson earning the win three times. Other multiple-time winners include Tommy Bolt, Arnold Palmer, J. C. Snead, Tom Watson, Steve Pate, Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day.
Last year’s edition was won by Matthieu Pavon, who birdied the final hole to seal a one stroke victory over Nicolai Højgaard to become the first Frenchman to win on the PGA Tour. Stephen Jaeger, Jake Knapp and Nate Lashley all finished T-3, two strokes behind Pavon.
Kurt Kitayama has had a middling start to 2025, making the cut in both of his starts, but logging finishes of T-37 and T-58. Kitayama is gaining strokes in five of the six major Strokes Gained categories so far this season, but ranks 146th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, which doesn’t bode well for an event that requires sharp approaches like this one does. Kitayama has missed the cut in this event in both of his previous trips to Torrey Pines and has notably struggled on longer courses on tour, missing the cut last year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard (Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge) and missing the cut in all three of his starts at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (Muirfield Village Golf Club). Kitayama is a great player on tour, but Torrey Pines just doesn’t play to his strengths. Mark Mr. Kitayama down for a missed cut this week.
One of the under the radar journeyman players on tour, Sam Ryder made the FedEx Cup Playoffs in each of his first six seasons on tour before struggling last season and just squeaking by into 2025, finishing 125th in the Fedex Cup Fall Standings thanks to a clutch T-5 finish at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, his only top 10 finish on tour last season. That being said, Ryder’s game is trending in the right direction to start this season, making the cut in both of his starts and finishing T-21 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Ryder’s game isn’t super impressive in any one area, but he is gaining strokes in five of the six major Strokes Gained categories. Ryder is a bit wild with the driver, ranking 157th on tour this season in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, but has some success with the longer irons, ranking inside the top 50 in Approaches from 150-175 Yards and Approaches from 200-225 Yards, two distances that will be vital when plotting your way around a stout Torrey Pines layout. Ryder has been an enigma in this event, going MC-T-43-MC-T-10-MC-T-4-MC in seven starts. Following this pattern, Ryder is due for another quality finish and with the field being weaker than normal, I predict that Sam Ryder will continue to trend in the right direction and bring home his second top 25 finish of 2025.
Fresh off of knee surgery last year, Tony Finau has had mixed results to start this season, finishing T-15 at The Sentry and missing the cut last week at The American Express. Finau’s game seems to get stronger and stronger as he gets closer to the green, ranking inside the top 80 in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, Around-the-Green and Putting, while ranking outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Off-the-Tee. Finau’s long iron game is also shifting into place this season, ranking inside the top 12 in Approaches from 150-175 Yards, Approaches from 225-250 Yards and Approaches from 250-275 Yards, where he ranks first. Above all else, Finau thrives in this event. In 10 career trips to Torrey Pines, Finau has six top 10’s and nine top 25’s to go against just one missed cut. Finau may still be easing his way back into the swing of things (You like that one?) health-wise, but I predict that he will continue his successful run in this event, legal issues be damned, and pick up his first top 10 of the season and third straight top 10 in this event.
The pride of Eslov, Sweden, Ludvig Åberg put together a sold campaign in 2024, with eight top 10’s and 14 top 25’s in 20 starts, including runner-up finishes at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Masters Tournament and the BMW Championship, on his way to a 16th place finish in the FedEx Cup Standings. Åberg picked up where he left off to start this season with a T-5 finish at The Sentry. Last season, Åberg was a ball striking machine, ranking inside the top 21 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, Off-the-Tee and Approach the Green. Åberg’s short game may have held him back at times, but he still ranked a respectable 67th in Strokes Gained: Putting. Åberg has shown he’s a great a ball striker, and the longer and harder it gets, the better he is (I’m talking about the golf course. Get your mind out of the gutter, you fucking perverts.). Åberg logged top 10 finishes in this event, The Masters Tournament and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday last season, of which all three courses are among the longest and hardest the tour visits each season. With a top 10 here last season and a top five in his most tour start, Åberg has to be feeling quite confident in knowing that he will be a force to be reckoned with this week. Åberg has not won on tour since the end of 2023. He is hungry and he is due. Give me Ludvig Åberg for the win in the Farmers Insurance Open!
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