Article Written By: Alexandro H. Zatarain
After an excellent performance by Patrick Reed out at the Humana Challenge in La Quinta, CA, the California stretch has now brought the PGA Tour down to La Jolla, CA for the Farmers Insurance Open.
This tournament is a huge change of pace for the players that have been playing in the last few weeks. Torrey Pines is the course that begins to bring out all of the elite superstars such as Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, and the man that has dominated the course throughout his career, Tiger Woods.
Tiger is coming into Torrey Pines as the defending champion and has won on this very golf course eight times, which is a very rare feat to have on any golf course. This weekend, he’ll have the opportunity to make it nine, something that no professional golfer has ever achieved. With that being said, we could definitely make Woods our favorite for the tournament.
The player to watch is Phil Mickelson. A San Diego native, Mickelson is coming off of a second place finish in Abu Dhabi and will surely look to build off of that. The downside; the lag he may face with the time changes, but do look for the crowd to lift the San Diego kid.
Also, do keep Jordan Spieth in mind. The 20-year old Spieth created quite a splash in his rookie campaign, collecting nine top-tens, four runner-ups, and his first career win. Although he missed the cut at the Sony Open two weeks ago, do expect him to contend and possibly crash the party.