The PGA Tour’s West Coast swing continues with the Farmers Insurance Open featuring the scenic Torrey Pines South Course in La Jolla, Calif. Torrey Pines has hosted this event every year since 1968. Lying on land occupied by an anti-aircraft battery during World War II, it is one of America’s most scenic course layouts atop coastal bluffs north of San Diego with dazzling views of the Pacific Ocean.
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Thanks to the frequent morning fog delays and early sunsets, there will be two courses utilized this week. Both are owned and maintained by the City of San Diego. Golfers will play both the North and South courses once before the cut on Friday. Only the South course will be used on the weekend. While the North course plays much easier and is more tree-lined, the South course sits much closer to the Pacific bringing possible weather effects into play. It is a massively lengthy track. In fact, it is the longest annual tour course in the rotation, stretching to almost 7,800 yards.
Scoring this week should be a complete reversal from last week’s birdie-fest at The American Express. Torrey Pines’ South Course ranks as the fifth-most difficult layout on tour, offering no let-up and forcing players to use every club in the bag. It serves as a true barometer of a golfer’s all-around game early in the 2026 season.
Even at sea level, Torrey Pines plays longer than the scorecard yardage due to softer fairways and the cooler January air. Long irons will be unavoidable, and players will need to shake off any early-season rust quickly. That challenge is reflected on the leader board, as winning scores here have been 15-under par or lower in 12 of the past 13 years.
Torrey Pines is a “sticky” course when it comes to the profile of players who find success. Par is a good score on the majority of holes, and with the course’s length, bombers and long-iron standouts hold a clear advantage. That said, the winners’ list is also dotted with elite scramblers and players who thrive on Poa annua greens.
It’s the first tough test of the new calendar year, and all eyes will be on Brooks Koepka, the five-time major champion who returns to the PGA Tour after spending the past four years at LIV Golf. 10 of the top 20 players in the world are in the field including Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley, Chris Gotterup, Ludvig Aberg, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren and returning champion Harris English.
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Here are my favorite plays and fades in each price range for the Farmers Insurance Open DraftKings DFS slate.
9k+ range Play: Hideki Matsuyama, $9,300 
Cliff Hawkins
With four recent top-15 finishes at Torrey Pines and a long track record of success on demanding layouts, Matsuyama consistently thrives on long and difficult courses. Over the past three years, he has gained an average of 1.09 strokes per round on these setups, third-best in the field. He excels with long irons and may possess the best around-the-green skill set in the world.
Despite being a notoriously inconsistent putter, what makes Matsuyama especially intriguing is that he does his best work on Poa annua greens. He has actually gained strokes with the putter at Torrey Pines in each of his last eight starts.
Sign up for the industry’s leading data tool to make golf stats easy to decipher—head to BetspertsGolf.com now and get access to The Rabbit Hole for only $10 for your first month. Use promo code GD10 at sign up for this amazing deal! Play: Chris Gotterup, $9,800
After his win two weeks ago at the Sony Open, following last year’s victory at the Scottish Open and a string of other strong finishes, the days of underrating Chris Gotterup are over. His length off the tee, paired with newfound accuracy, is a deadly combination at a venue like Torrey Pines.
Those recent wins also show he can contend on any type of course, particularly coastal tracks, which is relevant this week with Torrey Pines perched along the Pacific Ocean. If the wind picks up, his low, piercing ball flight and elite clubhead speed should stand out among this upper tier of players.
Fade: Xander Schauffele, $10,500
Fading one of the most consistently elite players on the PGA Tour is never comfortable, but the combination of not having played a competitive round in nearly four months and carrying the highest price on the slate makes it easier to look elsewhere. He is also out of his normal routine as every year of his career, Schauffele has played at least one event before teeing it up at Torrey Pines. This time around, I would rather save salary at the top and load up on several strong options below him on the board.
$8,000+ range Play: Max Homa, $8,300
Whether Max is officially “back” or not is still up for debate, but after seeing him carry over his elite ball-striking from the second half of last year by gaining four-plus strokes at last week’s American Express, I’m all in on Homa who won here at Torrey Pines in 2023. He also ranks as the ninth-best putter on poa greens over the past five years gaining 0.47 strokes per round.
Fade: Jake Knapp, $8,500 
Icon Sportswire
While Knapp’s skill set does align well with Torrey Pines and he finished third here in 2024, his recent results on long, difficult scoring courses raise some concern. He has just one top-30 finish in his past nine starts on those setups. With roughly 40 percent of around-the-green shots expected to come from the rough this week, according to Betsperts Golf’s Rabbit Hole, it is also troubling that Knapp ranks 86th in this field in scrambling from the rough, converting just 55 percent of his opportunities. I’d rather play Homa, Adam Scott or Wyndham Clark in this range.
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$7,000+ range Play: Nicolai Højgaard, $7,500 
Andrew Redington
Højgaard’s young professional career has already featured plenty of highs and lows, from making the Ryder Cup team in 2023 to being replaced by his brother, Rasmus, in 2025, followed by multiple stretches of missed cuts last season and then a surge of top-five finishes.
Dating back to the fall, he has now made five consecutive cuts, highlighted by four top-15 finishes and a fourth-place result last week in a strong field at the Dubai Desert Classic. His distance off the tee, paired with long-iron precision and steady putting, makes him a legitimate threat at Torrey Pines.
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$6,000+ range Play: Jhonattan Vegas, $6,800 
Andy Lyons
The $6,000 range is not for the faint of heart this week, as very few players in this tier possess the skill set or upside required to contend at Torrey Pines. Vegas stands out more f
Sign up for the industry’s leading data tool to make golf stats easy to decipher—head to BetspertsGolf.com now and get access to The Rabbit Hole for only $10 for your first month. Use promo code GD10 at sign up for this amazing deal!
Ron Klos (@PGASplits101 on X) is a PGA Tour data analyst for Betsperts Golf.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
