The PGA Tour stops at the gorgeous greens of Torrey Pines this week in San Diego, California. 2019 tournament winner Justin Rose will make the attempt to become the fourth back-to-back winner at Torrey Pines in history, following in footsteps of consecutive winners J.C. Snead, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods. Rose currently has 16-1 odds heading into Wednesday night alongside field favorites Rickie Fowler (20-1) and Xander Schauffele (also 16-1), and Tiger Woods.
Since 1968, Torrey Pines has been featured as one of the premier courses of the tour. In its current setup, players end up splitting the first 36 holes between North and South sides of the course, then finish the tournament off by playing the final 36 holes on the South Course. Both courses are 72-par and average roughly 7,400 yards. There have been several winners that have placed first at Torrey Pines multiple times, with Tiger being the most accomplished (7 wins from 1993, 2003, 2005-2008, and 2013). The field is definitely the strongest we’ve had in the new year, with the star-studded talent of guys like Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Scott Stallings and Jon Rahm in addition to the aforementioned favorites.
It’s hard not to like Tiger Woods this weekend, as his course record ranks first among the rest of the field, no matter how good the current golfers are. Hard to believe that Woods hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event since winning the Zozo Championship in Japan in the Fall of 2019, but he’ll be back in full-force this weekend. As stated earlier, Woods has a record-setting 8 victories at Torrey Pines, making him a threat to win it all every time he takes the course. My money is on Rory McIlroy, who’s currently getting +500 odds as the favorite to win this weekend.
