The 2025 PGA Tour season is in full swing and this week will see the second of the year’s PGA Tour Signature Events, the Genesis Invitational.
The buildup to this year’s Genesis has been packed full of drama. Usually held in LA at Riviera, the tournament has been moved to Torrey Pines out of respect for the people whose lives were turned upside down due to the recent LA wildfires.
There was then huge excitement as despite playing a hugely limited schedule, Tiger Woods declared that he would be making his 2025 debut. However after receiving the devastating news that his mother passed away last week, Woods recently declared that he wasn’t in the right mindset to tee it up.
Despite the rocky buildup to this year’s tournament, a loaded field will head over to San Diego to take on one of the best courses in the world. Ahead of the action starting later this week, here is everything you need to know.
The Course
Torrey Pines is the home to the Farmers Insurance Open. Whereas at the Farmers Insurance Open, players tackle both the North and South Course, it is regarded that the much harder course of the two is the South, and this week the players will play all four rounds upon it.
A monster of a course, the South Course measures 7,765 yards in length and is one of the longest that the players will encounter all year.
A course designed to favour the bigger hitters, when the wind whips off the banks of the Pacific, Torrey Pines can play as one of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour and this was evident when the winning score at the Farmers was just -8.
As well as length being a huge determining factor in who will be successful this week, accuracy off the tee will also be huge. Videos have surfaced this week of how thick and lush the rough is set to be this week and if a player veers off line and their ball finds its way into the rough, there is a huge chance that any player will have a tough time salvaging their par.
The Favourites
Since their inception last year, nobody has enjoyed the PGA Tour’s Signature Events as much as Scottie Scheffler.
A winner of three last season, Scheffler will head to San Diego hopeful of kickstarting his 2025 which it’s fair to say has yet to burst into life.
Having hurt his hand whilst cooking over Christmas, a need for surgery delayed when the World number one would take to the course and despite having now played both the AT&T Championship and Phoenix Open, it’s fair to say that Scheffler has yet to really feature.
What has let him down over the last two weeks is that he hasn’t been usual accurate self and he has found himself having to scramble from off tee and his usual immaculate touch hasn’t quite been at the level that we have been so accustomed to seeing.
Despite those struggles, Scheffler is still the clear favourite for victory this week and if he can rediscover his best swing, very few players will be able to stop him from capturing a first title of the season.
Although a hugely genial character, Scheffler is a winner and he showed on several occasions last week at Phoenix that not winning bothers him. After finishing in a tie for 25th in the desert he will be raring to go this week and few would be surprised if he were to turn into the force of old this week.
Rory McIlroy was able to land the first Signature Event of his career when outlasting the rest of the field at Pebble Beach just a few weeks ago and he will head to Torrey Pines full of confidence that he can repeat the trick this week.
What can often cost McIlroy when the lights are at their brightest is his capacity to beat himself, but despite a whole host of chasers trying to overhaul his slim lead during the final round of the AT&T Championship, the four time Major Champion was keen to show that this time around things would be different.
Playing sensibly and safely, he plotted his way round from tee to green, keeping a lid on the errors and making the crucial putts when he needed to. Shutting the door on his rivals, he proved to be in a class all of his own as the fia round reached its conclusion and his win was certainly deserved.
Despite not playing his best golf on the West Coast, McIlroy should be loaded with confidence and he could be a tricky man to stop. Statistically the best driver of the ball on the PGA Tour, the South Course’s length won’t be a challenge this week and as long as he can drive the ball straight and true, he should find himself bang in contention by the time that the final round rolls around.
The Value Plays
With a cut line at this week’s Genesis, in order to win this week a player will need to get off to a fast start, but as there always is in events like this, there is plenty of value that can be found.
With Xander Schauffele still unable to play due to injury, Collin Morikawa will start the week as the third favourite for victory and having enjoyed success on courses similar to Torrey Pines, he certainly isn’t without a chance this week. One thing that will determine his success is his accuracy. When dialled in with both his driver and irons, there are very few in the game that can live with the two time major winner.
He found himself in contention at this event last year but fell away during the final round. It's been too long since a player of his class was able to last win a big event on the PGA Tour and he will hope to amend that record this week.
Heading into the Farmers Insurance Open the man to beat was Ludvig Aberg and after producing a superb opening -8 round, illness got the better of the Swede and he had to settle for a finish well down the field. A huge hitter of the ball, there were suspicions that Torrey Pines would be exactly to his liking and he proved that theory correct until his illness got the better of him.
Now restored back to full health, he will be confident of using that dominant display over the first 18 holes at the Farmers to his advantage here. A dark horse in the field, he easily has the ability to land the biggest title of his career this week.
Jack Hartman
A keen golfer and huge fan of the game, Jack has been covering golf for the last five years. Bringing you all the latest coverage and news from the PGA, LIV, LPGA and DP World Tours, never before has golf been so popular and Jack can’t wait to bring all the excitement to his readers.
