The Farmers Insurance Open boasts the deepest field of the season, with six of the top ten and sixteen of the top 30 players in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). The event will be held on the two courses at Torrey Pines in San Diego, California.
The tournament will be played from Wednesday to Saturday to accommodate the NFL conference championship games, and CBS will feature prime-time coverage on Friday and Saturday nights.
Otherwise, the tournament is expected to be back to normal, with spectators in attendance and hospitality suites in full operation. Patrick Reed won last year’s event by five shots without fans in attendance over a group of five players that included Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, and Viktor Hovland after a closing four-under par 68.
The last time the Tour players saw Torrey Pines was during the 2021 U.S. Open, which was played on the more difficult South Course that was changed to a par 71, with the sixth hole becoming a par four.
Jon Rahm claimed the title, making birdies on his final two holes to replicate his initial Tour victory that also came at Torrey Pines.
Betting Lines
As he has been in almost every tournament he has entered since assuming the top spot in the OWGR, Rahm is the overwhelming wagering favorite with odds of +700 as the Spaniard has recorded five top-ten finishes at Torrey Pines in the last five years, including his pair of victories.
Justin Thomas, the sixth-ranked player in the OWGR, is next at +1200 and is coming off back-to-back top-five finishes, most recently at the Sentry Tournament of Champions to open the calendar year.
Xander Schauffele, seventh in the OWGR, had a tie for second in last year’s Farmers Insurance Open and a tie for seventh in the U.S. Open, so his odds of +1600 are no surprise.
A trio of players are at +1800, with Dustin Johnson making his first start since the CJ CUP@SUMMIT, Bryson DeChambeau returning after withdrawing from the Sony Open with a wrist injury, and Hideki Matsuyama, the only player to win twice so far in the 2021-2022 season.
Three-time Farmers Insurance Open champion Phil Mickelson is in the field at +12500, defending champion Reed is at +4000, and Hudson Swafford, last week’s winner in the American Express, has odds of +10000.
Favorites Picks
It’s impossible not to go with Rahm due to his stellar record and emotional ties to Torrey Pines, which is where he proposed to his future wife and picked up his first of six PGA Tour victories. His worst finish at the venue was an uncharacteristic tie for 29th in 2018 after shooting eight over par 152 on the weekend.
Schauffele has gone three years without a PGA Tour victory, although he was able to capture the gold medal in last year’s Tokyo Olympics and should be a solid choice given his performances at Torrey Pines in 2021. He hasn’t played since the Sentry Tournament of Champions, where he finished 12th after a closing seven-under par 66.
Another player with a long record of success is Finau, who enters the week at odds of +2800 after four top-six finishes in the last five Farmers Insurance Open.
Finau snapped a victory drought of over five years with a victory in the Northern Trust during the 2021 FedEx Cup playoffs but has struggled in 2021-2022, with Torrey Pines serving as an excellent opportunity for him to have a breakout tournament.
