The tour has been cookin’ along for a while now, but now that it heads to beautiful San Diego at pristine and historic Torrey Pines Golf Club, as the PGA Tour season really feels like it’s commenced.
Jon Rahm is playing beyond spectacular golf right now. He won this past weekend at the American Express in La Quinta, California, shooting 27 under and outlasting rookie Davis Thompson, a 23 year old who was born in Auburn, AL. and played at the University of Georgia. Thompson shot 26 under. Thompson had an unusual thing happen to him on the par 3, 17th hole on Sunday. He was one shot back of Rahm and faced a 50 foot birdie putt. He chose to leave the pin in for his attempt. He stroked it perfectly and the ball was tracking right towards the hole, center cut. But, unfortunately for Thompson, the ball hit the flagstick and popped out of the hole, 16 inches from it. He tapped in for par, and lost by a shot. That leads to the question of should you keep the pin in on putts or should the pin be pulled out? On putts of that length, some golfers will have their caddie tend the pin and pull it out when the ball is getting close. Many golfers these days are leaving the pin in on all putts. Matthew Fitzpatrick kept the pin in on almost every putt he attempted when he won the U.S, Open in 2022 at The Country Club at Brookline (MA.). Brooke Henderson leaves the pin in on every putt including one footers and she won the Amundi Evian Championship in 2022, one of the five majors on the LPGA Tour. It’s played in pristine Evian-led Bains, France.
So, many players choose to leave it in. I favor taking the pin out on every putt except for the 30 footers and beyond and I’ll get one of my playing partners to tend it from that distance. But it’s a personal choice thing. A lot of guys I play with like the visual the flag gives them. They can just see their target better. I just don’t want to miss a putt because the ball hits the pin and gets rejected. It cost Thompson this past Sunday, but that seems to be an unusual occurrence. Still, it’s something for the PGA players to consider now and going forward. And, for guys who play golf passionately for a hobby.
Now, Rahm lands at a spot he’s had major success at, and I do mean Major. He won the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines South Course. He won the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey also. And, since 2019, he’s finished T5, 2, T7 and T3 at the Famers along with his ‘21 Open title. Beyond that, in his last 7 worldwide starts, he’s finished tied 2nd at the 2022 BMW Championship on the DP World Tour, the European Tout, last September. He won the 2022 Spanish Open. He finished tied for 4th at the CJ Cup in South Carolina in 2022. He won the 2022 DP World Tour Championship. He finished tied for 8th at the Hero World Challenge in 2022. He won the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions at Maui three weeks ago. And he won the American Express this past weekend. That’s a huge wow. With the kind of season the Rahminator’s putting together, you gotta like him to capture a major or 2, or 3, and have a gigantic season on par with one of the Tiger Woods-type seasons. He could win 6 to 8 tournaments.
He said in his press conference following his victory on Sunday that he felt like he could control every shot on the course at La Quinta. He was in the highly desirable zone golfer can get in at times. He said he wishes that would happen every time, but it’s hard to do. He could make a case for being in a zone this week at Torrey as well. He said the “MVPs” of his game this past weekend were his 56 and 52 degree wedges. He was hitting both of them to within 4 feet and better and leaving himself several tap in birdies. Kind of nice to be dialed in like that. You can make a lot of excellent paychecks and make some history with those kind of shots.
Rahm will be contending with a strong field this week. Justin Thomas, a two time PGA Championship winner, is playing. Xander Schauffele, the San Diego native who shot a 62 this past Sunday at the AMEX which included a double eagle on the par 5 fifth, he sank it from 225 yards out with a four iron. Xander is playing. Collin Morikawa, another Southern Californian and the 2020 PGA Championship winner and 2021 Open Championship winner, is in the field. Max Homa, who’s already won this season at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, CA., is in the field. Homa is another Southern Californian. Homa has won 5 times on the tour including back to back at Napa. He won the Genesis Open in Pacific Palisades, CA. in 2021. Tony Finau, who won the Cadence Bank Houston Open back in November, is in the field as well. The 33 year old Finau is hitting his stride. Will Zalatoris, who, after some frustration losing to Justin in a playoff at last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Oklahoma, and finishing second to Fitzpatrick at the U.S. Open at the Country Club last June, is in the field. Zalatoris had an 18 footer on the 72nd hole to tie Fitzpatrick at the Open in 2022 and just barely missed. Will did win the Fed Ex St. Jude Championship in Memphis last August, the first leg of the Fed Ex playoffs, so he had great success last year. Hideki Matsuyama is in the field as is Jason Day, who won in 2018. Day is 35 now and still competing hard. He just hasn’t had the success that was anticipated after he defeated Jordan Spieth at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, when he played some stellar golf and denied Spieth a shot at a third major that year. But he’s got a new year ahead of him. He finished tied for third at Torrey in 2022 and finished tied for 18th at the American Express last weekend. So, it’s a really nice field.
Just for informational purposes, the 87th edition of the Masters, at famed Augusta National, will be played April 6th-9th, Thursday-Sunday, as they all are except for this tournament this week which starts tomorrow and finishes on Saturday so it won’t conflict with the NFC and AFC Championship Games on Sunday. The 105th PGA Championship will be played at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, May 18-21. The 123rd U.S. Open will be played at Los Angeles Country Club, the North Course, June 15-18. Father’s Day is always a special day and the final round of the U.S. Open doesn’t hurt the quality of that day. And the 151st Open Championship will be played at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake in Wirral , England July 20th-23rd. So, a superb major season once again. Also, the PGA has designated 17 tournaments as key ones as far as purse sizes. There are $20 million purses in each one of those 17 tournaments. Will get more into that as the season progresses.
Surprisingly, the Farmers is not one of them. But the tournament stands alone in its importance to many players, so there will always be a strong field at Torrey.
The defending champion is Luke List, who I forgot to say, outlasted Will Zalatoris in a playoff to capture the championship last season. Luke won his first PGA title in 206 starts at 37 years old. I was happy for my fellow Vanderbilt graduate. Luke is in the field as is Davis Thompson and Robbie Shelton from the University of Alabama. The 27 year old Shelton, from Mobile, who had a stellar albeit brief career in Tuscaloosa, finished tied for 6th last weekend at the American Express shooting 66-68-65-66. Wow, that seems good enough to win tournaments, but with the caliber of players these days, it’s tough to win out there. Former University of Alabama player Trey Mullinax is also in the field. The 30 year old from Birmingham, won the 2022 Barbasol Championship last July in Kentucky. They used to play the Barbasol at the Grand National Course in Auburn, a Robert Trent Jones course, part of the RTJ Trail. Mullinax and Shelton were teammates on the Alabama National Championship team in 2014. Trey sank a clutch 28 foot eagle putt to clinch it in 2014. It was a spectacular putt. Trey was also on the 2013 national championship team, so he went back to back.
Torrey Pines South is the longest course on the PGA Tour schedule this year at 7,765 yards. Torrey North, at 7,258 yards, is no bargain any more after the late Tom Weisckopf redesigned it in 2016. Torrey was originally designed by the father-son team of William P. and William F. Bell in 1957. Rees Jones renovated the South Course in 2001 and again in 2019. Both are par 72’s.
Of course, Tiger Woods won his dramatic 14th major in 2008 at Torrey, playing on a broken leg. Historic stuff. He won his 15th major at Augusta National in 2019. He’s got his work cut out for him to get to 16 and beyond. The competition is incredibly fierce now, and he just turned 47 on December 30th. I’m not totally counting him out, but it’s a “major” challenge for him now. The competition and his physical ailments will make it difficult.
The players will play the first 36 holes on the North and South, and, after round 2 and the cut, they will finish up on the South for the final 36 holes. The 18th is a par 5, 540 yard hole with a large trap on the right side that can hurt you off the tee and another one on the left along with thick Kikuyu rough and kind of a blind shot that keeps the player from going for it in 2 as does the trap on the right side. If the player can fit it in the fairway, he can go for it in two and have a shot at eagle. Tiger had an amazing eagle in the third round of the 2008 Open from about 40 feet above the hole on a beyond impressive round on Saturday. Then on Sunday, he sank a heroic 8 foot birdie putt on 18 to send the tournament into an 18 hole playoff with Rocco Mediate, which Tiger won on Monday. NBC’s terrific PGA play by play announcer Dan Hicks said when Tiger converted the birdie, “Would you expect anything different!”
Rahm converted an amazing 55 foot eagle putt in 2017 that clinched the tournament for him. It was his first victory on the PGA Tour. He now has nine victories on Tour and counting. In the playoff last year, List and Zalatoris both drove the ball into the right side bunker on 18, their first sudden death playoff hole. List hit his second shot to 131 yards from the hole and hit a gap wedge from there a foot from the hole to tap in for birdie. Zalatoris had a 15 footer before List to try and tie him, but missed to the left. List started the final round five shots off the lead and shot a 66 and waited two and a half hours to see if he could make it in the playoff or even win it. Really terrific tournament every year. There always seems to be high drama.
The rough will be up to 4 inches and the greens are Poa Annua and stimping at 13, so they will be quick. Anything above 12 on the Stimpmeter is fast. For the casual golf fan, the Stimpmeter measures the speed the ball will travel at a known velocity on the green as measured by the Stimpmeter which releases the ball from itself. The Stimpmeter a machine that allows the ball to roll off of it and roll on the green and measures how many feet it travels from the same velocity rolling off the machine. Eight feet is slow, 10 feet is medium and 12 feet is fast. Thirteen is a quick pace. For the U.S, Open, 12 is considered medium and 14 fast, so they really light’em up at the Open. But 13 is quick.
Three terrific groups tomorrow.
At 12:40 PM CT on the South Course, Rahm, Finau and JT.
At 11:30 AM CT on the South, Homa, Zalatoris and Morikawa.
And at 11:40 AM CT on the South, Xander, J.J. Spaun and Matsuyama.
Weather,
Wednesday, Sunny, 66, wind NNW 8 MPH.
Thursday, Sunny, 69, wind NE 16 MPH.
Friday, Sunny, 66, wind NNW 8.
Saturday, partly sunny, 63, wind S 11.
So wind will be a factor on the difficult South and on the challenging North.
TV
Wednesday-Thursday, 2-6 PM CT, Golf Channel.
Friday, 2-4 PM CT, GC, 4-7 PM CT, CBS.
Saturday, 1:30-3:30 PM CT, GC. 3:30-7 PM CT, CBS.
Winner
Rahmbo is the ultimate Torrey Pines competitor outside of Tiger. Tiger has won 8 times at Torrey. Rahm hasn’t accomplished that, but I like the 28 year old from Barrika Biscay, Spain, who learned English at Arizona State by listening to Rap Music, to capture another title in what promises to be a stellar season for Jon Rahm Rodriguez.
Rahminator
Sleepers
Give me two.
The 27 year old from Mobile, Alabama and former University of Alabama golfer,
Robbie Shelton
And the 26 year old from Davidson , North Carolina and former Vanderbilt Commodore.
Will Gordon