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Homa and Bradley enjoy playing Torrey Pines, but the SoCal weather will make things interesting this week.
The Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines will be played Wednesday through Saturday this week. That’s because of the NFL’s conference championship games Sunday, with CBS airing the Chiefs vs. Ravens game.
Torrey Pines is known as one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world. It is also one of the more challenging courses on Tour. That might even be ramped up a notch this time around.
Last year, Max Homa won his sixth PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines. Following the Pro Am Tuesday, he discussed the conditions of the course which should make for a very interesting weekend.
“The course is wet. The fairways here do a great job of not holding too much of that… The rough is extra thick, so it’s always hard here but that’s going to be extra difficult.”
Indeed, Southern California has been hit with a number of rain storms in recent days. The wet conditions have thickened up the rough considerably, putting a premium on driving accuracy.
The man who finished runner up to Homa last year, Keegan Bradley, is also preparing for difficulties.
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“Coming here this is going to be an absolute battle, every hole is if you miss the fairway you’re in trouble. But if you do hit the fairways here, especially with it being soft, you can score but you have to hit these fairways.”
“The rough is insane. I don’t know if they haven’t been able to cut it because of how wet it is. I would assume they’re going to try to cut it because it’s chip-out, it’s U.S. Open-style rough,” Bradley said.
The West Coast swing has always been one of his favorite parts of the season. Bradley comes in playing very well, finishing T2 two weeks ago at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He’ll look to make amends for the second place finish last year and his seventh PGA Tour win.
Kendall Capps is the Senior Editor of SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social media platforms.
