Top stars in field at Torrey Pines
Eight of the world’s top pros to tee off at Torrey Pines
The PGA Tour season has more unofficial starts than you and your buddies on the first tee, the last of which comes this week as Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy make their 2020 debut at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
The 2019-20 wraparound season actually started at the Greenbrier back in September, but we’ll excuse all but the hardcore golf fans from paying much attention.
The tour’s “Asian Swing” at the end of October featured Woods’ record-tying 82nd win and had many sports fans perk up from NFL football and turkey if only to say: “There’s an Asian Swing?”
Once the calendar turned, the PGA Tour felt more familiar as the players made their way to Hawaii for the two events that used to mark the start of the season before this wraparound thing began in 2013-14. But watching golf in Hawaii in January always feels a bit like a pre-season, with many of the world’s top players staying home.
That brings us to the West Coast swing that began last week at the awkwardly named American Express, where Andrew Landry shot 26-under to win.
This week at Torrey Pines, eight of the top 15 players in the world will be in the field, including Woods and Mcilroy.
“This really gets my PGA Tour season up and running,” said defending champion Justin Rose. “This really feels like the start of my year.”
So here at the Farmers Insurance Open, the 14th tournament of the season, we’ve finally made it to the last “start” of the season. At least, that is, until the Masters.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR SPIETH?
Jordan Spieth is also making his 2020 debut this week at Torrey Pines, beginning what should be one of the most compelling storylines of the season.
Spieth’s golf game has fallen on hard times.
After winning 10 times, including three majors, between 2015-17, the 26-year-old Texan hasn’t won since. His last victory came at the Open Championship in July 2017.
What makes Spieth’s downfall even more fascinating to us — and likely terrifying for him — is that it seems to be the first adversity he’s ever faced on the golf course. The nickname Golden Boy was well-earned as Spieth dominated every level of golf growing up.
“From when I was 12 years old on, it’s been kind of easy. And then at some point, it got a little harder, so it’s a little bit of OK, a little bit of panic,” Spieth said.
After showing some signs of life last season, Spieth has spent the past few months making mechanical adjustments to rebuild his swing. He hasn’t played an official PGA Tour event since the WGC-HSBC in China 2½ months ago.
DELAET’S COMEBACK CONTINUES
After nearly two years away, Graham Delaet began his comeback in October, making 24 starts on the PGA Tour to retain his playing status for next season.
Playing on a major medical exemption following his second back surgery, the Canadian golfer is trying to just focus on his game, rather than the number of Fedex Cup points he needs to stay on tour.
“I feel like I’m just kind of back now, more than anything,” Delaet said at Torrey Pines.
“Obviously, I’m in a little bit of a hole, but I’m trying to play this out and not worry about the medical too much, because I had 24 events, which is basically a full season of golf out here. My focus is to make the playoffs, and not worry too much about the medical.”
Let us do the math. He’s made five starts in his comeback, so he has 19 starts left on his exemption, 18 after this week.
The good news for Delaet is that, before his injury in 2017-18, he finished tied for fifth at the Safeway Open, gaining him 105 Fedex Cup points. He needs 259 more points to retain his playing status for 2020-21.