Farmers Insurance Open
Courses: Torrey Pines South Course (7,765 yards, par 72) [Host Course], Torrey Pines North Course (7,258 yards, par 72)
Purse: $9,600,000
Winner: $1,728,000 and 500 FedExCup Points
Tournament Preview
This week's Farmers Insurance Open marks a pretty historic event for the PGA Tour and golf as a whole. Brooks Koepka will play in his first PGA Tour event since joining LIV Golf back in 2022. After Koepka decided to leave LIV prior to the end of his contract and apply for reinstatement on the PGA Tour, it left plenty of questions of what a return could potentially look like.
Enter the Returning Member Program which allows players who would otherwise still have full status on the PGA Tour a pathway back immediately. Winners of major championships since the beginning of 2022 would still have full status via a five-year exemption, and thus were eligible to take advantage of this exclusive program. Koepka appears to be the only player able that will use the Returning Member Program, as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith all have renounced their commitment in 2026 to LIV Golf.
Koepka of course is not off the hook completely. He will not be eligible to take part in the PGA Tour Player Equity Program for five years and will also not be able to take any sponsors exemption into the Signature Events. Koepka must also play in at least 15 events this season, which is why he has already added the Farmers Insurance Open, WM Phoenix Open and Cognizant Classic to his schedule early this year.
While surely there will be some players who think Koepka still got off too easy, having a five-time major champion return is a huge win for the PGA Tour and a big blow for LIV Golf. Koepka will do nothing but add value to the Tour. If that wasn't already clear, ESPN will air three hours of early coverage on Thursday and Friday this week. That marks the first time in nearly 20 years that ESPN has broadcasted live coverage of a non-major on the PGA Tour.
While the return of Koepka is the major storyline this week, there is a stellar field of 147 players set to tee it up. San Diego native Xander Schauffele will make his 2026 season debut as he hopes to bounce back after a disappointing 2025 in which he failed to reach the TOUR Championship. Schauffele is coming off a victory in his last start back in October in Japan. J.J. Spaun and Justin Rose are the other top-10 ranked players in this field. World No. 11 Harris English will be at Torrey Pines again looking to defend his title at the Farmers, while No. 19 Ludvig Aberg won the last time the PGA Tour was at Torrey Pines when The Genesis Invitational moved from Riviera due to the Los Angeles fires a year ago.
For the second straight week the PGA Tour features a course rotation, although there are only two this week as compared to the three we saw at The American Express. The field will get one round at the much easier Torrey Pines North Course along with the more difficult South Course over the first two days before a 36-hole cut is made and the top 65 and ties will transition to just the South Course for the final two rounds.
We will see a much different style of golf this week after a complete birdie barrage at The Amex. Torrey Pines South is a beast at nearly 7,800 yards with nasty rough all around. The average winning score over the last five years has been just 12.6-under-par. That said, the forecast this week is beautiful with plenty of sunshine and very moderate winds. Things will likely firm up on the weekend, but I'd expect a winning score closer to 15-under-par.
Recent Champions
2025 - Harris English (-8)
2024 - Matthieu Pavon (-13)
2023 - Max Homa (-13)
2022 - Luke List (-15)
2021 - Patrick Reed (-14)
2020 - Marc Leishman (-15)
2019 - Justin Rose (-21)
2018 - Jason Day (-10)
2017 - Jon Rahm (-13)
2016 - Brandt Snedeker (-6)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
- Bogey Avoidance/Approaches 200+ Yards
Champion's Profile
If ever there was a week to be able to drive it long and straight this would be it. The South Course has the fourth-narrowest fairways on the PGA Tour while also being the longest course these players will see all season. It plays even longer when you consider it is right on the Pacific ocean and the air is typically a little heavier than usual. That said, whether you are hitting the fairway or not there will be a lot more mid-to-long irons into greens than we usually see. Having to come out of this nasty four-inch rough on a regular basis will not make for an enjoyable experience.
Short game will also be quite critical. With longer shots into greens that usually means more scrambling opportunities. There's a number of runoff areas around these greens which can leave a tricky shot from a tight lie. There's also some greens where thick rough is very close to the putting surface, and a short-side miss can prove to be a very difficult up-and-down. I've always preferred ball strikers at Torrey Pines South over putters because these are some of the bumpiest poa annua greens on Tour. Good putts will routinely wander off-line, especially late in the afternoon. Everyone is going to miss their share of short-range putts, but if you can be solid from 4-8 feet and avoid three-putts, that's a great way to keep the score together on this beast of a golf course.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Xander Schauffele ($12,000)
Schauffele is ready to put a disappointing 2025 season behind him and kick start things into high gear early in 2026. What better place to do it than his home event in which he finished top-15 in three of his last four starts. One thing Schauffele did excel at last season was iron play, as he ranked 12th in SG: Approach, fifth in approaches 150-175 yards and ninth in approaches 200-225 yards. Schauffele hasn't played since he won the Baycurrent Classic last October, but you can bet he's been hard at work to get his driving and short game back to what they were in 2024.
Ludvig Aberg ($11,900)
Aberg was actually in good position a year ago to win this event after opening with a nine-under 63 at the North Course. The weekend was a struggle as Aberg battled an illness and went nine-over-par to drop to T42. A few weeks later he got his revenge when the PGA Tour returned to Torrey Pines for The Genesis Invitational and Aberg closed strong this time to take the victory. He's one of the best all-around ball strikers on Tour when he's on and has proven he does well on difficult golf courses.
Si Woo Kim ($11,100)
Kim might not have gotten the job done on Sunday at The Amex, but there's no Scottie Scheffler to contend with this time around. Torrey Pines should be an excellent fit as he is a supreme ball striker. Kim was top-30 on Tour last season in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach, driving accuracy, approaches from 175-200 yards and approaches from 200-225 yards. He also was 11th in SG: Around-the-Green. Kim hasn't finished outside the top-25 in his last nine starts with four top-6 finishes in that span.
The Middle Tier
Chris Gotterup ($10,500)
Usually I'm not big on taking a player coming off a win, but Gotterup is a great fit for Torrey Pines. He's got massive power as he ranked top 10 in SG: Off-the-Tee, driving distance and club head speed last season. One other thing Gotterup doesn't get enough credit for is how much touch he has around the greens. He was great in this department the second half of last season and ranked 19th in scrambling. The putter has also become a major weapon.
Michael Thorbjornsen ($9,700)
Thorbjornsen missed the cut at The Amex, but this is a completely different test that is much more suited to his strengths. He was one of the best drivers on Tour last season ranking seventh in SG: Off-the-Tee, sixth in driving distance and first in total driving. The Stanford product also finished first in GIR percentage and was 10th in approaches outside of 200 yards. All of that will play very nicely at this brute of a golf course.
Nicolai Hojgaard ($9,200)
Hojgaard is coming off a strong T4 finish at the Dubai Desert Classic, another course that played pretty difficult last week. The Dane has one prior start at Torrey Pines which was a runner-up back in 2024. It's easy to see why Hojgaard played well here considering he's one of the longest on Tour and a supreme iron player. His putting can be up-and-down, but he ranked eighth on Tour last season in putting from 4-8 feet. Hojgaard was also fifth in par-5 scoring average, the one area you can actually attack at Torrey Pines.
The Long Shots
Haotong Li ($8,800)
Li is coming off a strong T8 finish at The Amex where he ranked top-5 in the measured rounds at the Stadium Course in SG: Off-the-Tee and SG: Approach. Li was also T3 across all rounds in scrambling. He is a great ball striker as evidence by the fact that he ranked 18th in SG: Off-the-Tee, fourth in SG: Approach and ninth in GIR percentage last season on the DP World Tour. That will help Li at Torrey Pines where he will be looking for his fourth top-10 finish in five starts worldwide.
Lee Hodges ($8,600)
Hodges missed the cut by a few shots last week, but he's still in good form after a T6 at the Sony Open and a T4 at The RSM Classic. Hodges has a lot of things working for him this week. He is coming off a year in which he ranked 23rd in SG: Approach, 12th in GIR percentage, 13th in scrambling and seventh in bogey avoidance. Those are all stats I'm drawn to at Torrey Pines. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that Hodges finished T9 last season here.
Gary Woodland ($7,900)
Woodland is still among the longest drivers on Tour at age 41. Last season he had the third highest club-head speed and was 26th in total driving. Woodland was also 36th in SG: Approach and eighth in approaches from 200+ yards. Torrey Pines is a place he has a lot of experience with 15 starts in this event. Woodland has gained strokes on off the tee in all but two previous tries and on approach in all but one. That's why he's only missed the cut twice and has five total top-20s.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
It's a much different look at the top of the salary board this week with Scheffler not in the field. We have a much more standard $12,000 max with all the other top options pretty tightly bunched. I'm anticipating ownership to be pretty spread out across the board here. With any tournament that has a course rotation, weather is usually an important factor to look at. Typically you want a player on the North Course on the more difficult weather day, but the forecast for Thursday, Friday and this whole week in general look just about the same. Koepka is going to be a popular play at $9,400 in his first event back on the PGA Tour, but given all the chatter surrounding him I don't expect much out of him this week. This is a player who ranks outside the top 150 on DataGolf and hasn't had a top-10 finish in a major championship since his win at the 2023 PGA Championship. It will take time for him to get his footing back on the PGA Tour.
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