2015 Farmers Insurance Open
Tournament: Back to California we go as we begin what will be a 3 week stay in the Golden state. The first of 3 tournament’s will be the Farmers Insurance Open. This tournament is sometimes referred to as Tigers Tourney. He’s won this tournament seven times and also won the 2009 U.S. Open at this course.
Course: Torrey Pines is located in La Jolla, California. Right on the Pacific Ocean. The tournament will be played over two courses at Torrey Pines. The North Course and the South Course. Players will alternate between the South and the North the first two days. Then they will play the South exclusively on the weekend. The South is considerably tougher @ 7,600+ yards than the North is at just 6,900+ yards. Both courses play as par 72’s.
Field: We have a great field here this week as seven of the top 19 players in the world are in the field. That includes Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, & Rickie Fowler. Tiger and Phil are also in the field, so expect so big crowds and some good golf.
What to Look For: There are a few things that I deem extremely critically at Torrey Pines. One is length. Being long off the tee is a huge advantage on a 7,600 yard course. Short hitters aren’t completely out of it as Snedeker’s performance at this tournament indicates. But, bombers fill up the leaderboard far more than their shorter counterparts. Going hand in hand with length is performance on the par 5’s. Torrey Pines South is a tough course and scoring on the par 5’s will be one of the only ways to really gain some ground on the course. Finally course performance is critical. Looking back at past winners, they mostly ALL had some type of great course history here, with the exception of Stallings last year.
Picks:
Hideki Matsuyama e/w: Back to the well on Hideki this week. Hideki finished 16th here last year in his first appearance at the course and has come into this week with 2 top 3 finishes in his last 3 stars. Matsuyama ranked 32nd last year on TOUR in par 5 scoring average.
Graham Delaet e/w: Here’s to hoping Koepka’s win last week puts a little boost into Delaet’s gears this week. Delaet has 2 top 10 finishes at Torrey and this is a course that suits him well. He can hit the ball a mile off the tee and while he finished 40th in par 5 scoring last year, he ranks 6th in 2015.
Justin Thomas e/w: Thomas has just about as good of form as anyone coming into this week and it’s getting tough to ignore him out there. Thomas hits the ball as far as anyone not named Brooks or Bubba and attacks par 5’s as well as anyone. He came here last year and posted a top 10 finish in his first attempt.
Marc Leishman e/w: Leishman is another player that has great course form here. He has 3 top 10 finishes including 2 runner ups. He last teed it up at the Sony Open and finished 37th but that course doesn’t really suit his game. Leishman is long and likes to bomb it out there.
Seung-Yul Noh e/w: Noh posted a top 10 finish last year at this event and posted identical T27 in this first two years here. Very good for such a young player. While Noh isn’t super long, he finished 11th in par 5 scoring last year. I really like Noh’s game and think at these odds, he’s a play we have to make.
Aaron Baddeley e/w: Badds seems to be rounding into form and clearly likes playing west coast golf. He posted a 6th place finish here in 2013 and had a very good showing last week in Phoenix. He only ranked 28th in par 5 scoring last season, but that’s good enough for 15th best in this week’s field.
2.5u Hideki Matsuyama e/w* @ 22/1
2u Graham Delaet e/w* @ 30/1
1.5u Justin Thomas e/w* @ 40/1
1.25u Marc Leishman e/w* @ 48/1
0.75u Seung-Yul Noh e/w* @ 95/1
0.50u Aaron Baddeley e/w* @ 126/1
*If your book does not offer e/w betting, place 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to win and 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to place top 5
Chris Munney
@progolfmoves
munneypicks 
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