Farmers Insurance Open Preview: Field, Course, History, Tee Times, How to Watch

The season heads to Torrey Pines, where Brooks Koepka will make his return to the PGA Tour after a nearly four-year absence. Here's what you need to know.

Harris English, a member of the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team, is the defending champion of the Farmers Insurance Open. | Abe Arredondo-Imagn Images

Time for Torrey Pines. 

The PGA Tour will play its longtime San Diego event, the Farmers Insurance Open, which is back a Thursday-Sunday after concluding on Saturday the past few years due to the NFL’s championship weekend. A 147-player field will vie for a $9.6 million purse, with the winner collecting $1,728,000. 

From its field, courses, history tee times and how to watch, here’s what you need to know for the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open. 

The (expanded) field, thanks to Brooks Koepka

Brooks Koepka is back. 

The former LIV Golf player left the rival circuit and was reinstated by the PGA Tour earlier this month, with sanctions. It’ll be his first Tour start since 2022, and as a condition of his reinstatement, he cannot take away a spot from another player in the field. Therefore, the field was officially expanded to 147 players, with the first two alternates—Lanto Griffin and Jackson Suber—nabbing tee times. 

O.K., now that we got that out of the way, what other notables are playing this week? Twenty-seven of the top 50 players in the world ranking, highlighted by No. 6 Xander Schauffele and No. 7 J.J. Spaun, both who played collegiately at San Diego State University.

There will also be past Farmers champions Brandt Snedeker (2012, 2016), Jason Day (2015, 2018), Justin Rose (2019), Luke List (2022), Max Homa (2023), Matthieu Pavon (2024) and Harris English (2025). 

There’s also Marcus Byrd, who won the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational on Monday to earn a spot in the field, along with open qualifiers Thomas Rosenmueller, Henrik Norlander, Hunter Logan and Jeremy Paul. 

An early-season litmus test on two courses

Torrey Pines is a litmus test early in the year. 

“You start [the season] here and you’re going to get punched in the mouth immediately,” Max Homa said in 2024.  

The Farmers (formerly known as the San Diego Open) has been held at Torrey Pines since 1968. Torrey’s South Course, however, has also staged two U.S. Opens (most famously Tiger Woods’ win in 2008 and Jon Rahm’s victory in ‘21). 

Players will play the South and North courses in the first two rounds, with the last two days moving to the South. 

In 2024, the 7,765-yard, par-72 South course was the second hardest course on Tour (out of 49), with a scoring average of 73.68 (1.68 strokes over par). Its 490-yard par-4 4th was the Tour’s 14th toughest hole, yielding a 4.36 scoring average. Its easiest hole was the 564-yard par-6 6th, ranking as the 58th least difficult on Tour, playing .556 strokes under par. 

The 7,258-yard, par-72 North course was the ninth toughest course on Tour last season (out of 48), with a scoring average of 72.57. Its hardest hole was the 495-yard par-4, playing .469 strokes over par as the Tour’s fourth most difficult. Meanwhile, its easiest hole was the 536-yard par-5 10th, ranking as the 57th least-difficult on Tour with a 4.44 scoring average. 

“You either love this course, or you don’t,” Keegan Bradley said last in 2024. “You know 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.”  

History: John Daly’s stunner

John Daly called it his “greatest one.”

No, he wasn’t talking about his 1991 PGA Championship or 1995 British Open victory, but rather his win in a playoff over Chris Riley and Luke Donald at Torrey Pines’s 2004 Buick Invitational. 

Ranked No. 299 in the world and winless since his triumph nine years prior at St. Andrews, Daly, on the first playoff hole, got up-and-down from the greenside bunker on the closing par-5, knocking his 100-foot shot to 4 inches en route to a birdie. Riley and Donald missed their tries to extend the playoff—and Daly was a champion once again, sending the fans into a frenzy. 

“It was just the sweetest victory,” Daly said after claiming his fifth Tour win, which was the last of his career. “It is because it’s been a long, long time. I’ve won two majors. Nothing can take that away, but I’ve never won a tournament that Tiger has been in the field. That feels good. And this field this week was one of the strongest fields we can have.”

Off the course, too, Daly had a turbulent few years. He went through multiple divorces and alcoholism sent him to rehab twice. His $864,000 winner’s check was more than he earned the prior two years combined. 

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs in those 10 years,” Daly said, “I just kept fighting and plugging away.”

“It’s the greatest one.” ❤️

In 2004, @PGA_JohnDaly claimed his final TOUR win at Torrey Pines.
#TOURVault | @FarmersInsOpen pic.twitter.com/iXvklRZgOj

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) January 23, 2025

However, Daly’s heroics at Torrey weren’t the only dramatic finish in Farmers history. 

Rahm notched his maiden Tour win in 2017 by holing a 60-foot eagle putt on the South course’s closing hole. There was also a memorable battle between Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson in 2011, with Watson winning after Mickelson nearly holed out for eagle from 72 yards to force a playoff. And Woods has seven Farmers wins (1999, 2003, 2005-08 and 2013).

Oh, and since we’re reflecting on indelible finishes at Torrey Pines, it’s probably worth mentioning Woods’s dramatic 2008 U.S. Open win and Rahm’s in 2021. 

How to watch (all times ET)

• Thursday-Friday: Noon-3 p.m. ET (ESPN), 3-7 p.m. (Golf Channel)
• Saturday: 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6:30 p.m. (CBS)
• Sunday: 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)

Koepka’s return has prompted ESPN’s linear network to air the opening two rounds of a regular PGA Tour event for the first time in nearly 20 years. 

ESPN+ will also have coverage during each round. 

First- and second-round tee times 

Tee times for the first round and second round of the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open. pic.twitter.com/NtJFjS56pN

— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) January 27, 2026