Weekend: Harris Wins At Tedious Torrey
A strong performance on the greens sends veteran back to The Masters. Plus, other notes from the weekend as the PGA Tour heads to Pebble Beach.
Nothing against Harris English. Or the other valiant competitors in Saturday’s final round of the Farmers Insurance Open. But my oh my, was that a glacial gathering at an event typically known for serving up lively finishes.
Blustery conditions, four-inch rough, and the relentless insipidness of Rees Jones’ redesign turned Sunday’s final playing under the “Farmers” banner into just the kind of par-savoring grindfest relished by English. The Georgia native has three top 10s and two top four’s in the last five U.S. Opens. He also competed in the 2016 event at Oakmont, this year’s venue (T37).
With the supreme touch shown over Torrey’s always tricky poa annua greens—including clutch two-putts from 46 and 55 feet at the 16th and 17th holes— English seems like a player to watch this June. And for the Quadritinkerers out there, English has used the same Ping “Scottsdale Ho-Hum” since 2011. Just an observation.
In holding off Sam Stevens by a stroke and Andrew Novak by two, English (-8/280) recorded his fifth PGA Tour victory in 340 career starts.
More importantly, the win earned the 35-year-old a return trip to the Masters. In six Masters, English has five made cuts with two top 25 finishes.
English came into the week ranked 75th in the world and is projected to jump up 41 spots. His winner’s circle return marks the first time he’s lifted a trophy since the 2021 Travelers. In between, there have been hip and shoulder surgeries to overcome.
Runner-up Stevens injected the final round its lone bit of drama by going for the 18th green in two. He hoped to set an eight or nine-under leading score a full hour ahead of the final group. But in attempting to get home with a 7-iron from 207 yards (downwind), the former Oklahoma State golfer’s ball hit the bank and rolled into the infamous greenside puddle. But the third-year PGA Tour member salvaged hundreds of thousands of dollars with a clutch spinning flop shot to make par and retain solo second. He also secured a spot in this week’s Pebble Beach event thanks to his AON Swing Something-or-Other status. Same deal with Novak.
Don’t say this newsletter fails to bring you hard facts that get you through the day.
Those bright spots could not gloss over a somber finish to Farmers’ run at the San Diego stop. The week featured a wave of illness and Genesis-related WD’s, Friday’s wind delay, and another predictable slow play debacle that led to a stern call-out by CBS on-course reporter Dottie Pepper. The overall mess erased any vibe the event might have enjoyed.
Not helping matters: the Torrey Pines week now comes before three “Signature” events with $20 million purses, smaller fields, and family dining offering your choice of grass-fed beef that’s the cause of all distance gains in golf. This puts the one-time prestigious stop in a tough position to lure star power or a new sponsor (as Tod Leonard explored in a GolfDigest.com story). The week marked the arrival of another dismal bullet point in Commissioner Jay Monahan’s player-driven PGA Tour vision to combat LIV: just let players hit when they get the wind they want, put all your eggs in a few $20 million events, and don’t even think about the competitive integrity of the “product.”
Mercifully, The Masters is fast approaching. And Harris English will be there after a hard-fought win.
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