The PGA Tour moved to its first California tour stop in San Diego, California at Torrey Pines.  The South Course at Torrey Pines is usually a pretty good test with spinachy rough and a bunch of holes that aren’t going to yield birdies especially on the back nine.  However, the tournament throws in a round at the easy North Course, where the players can go really low–62/63 kind of low.  This year the weather in San Diego was perfect with warm temperatures, little wind and brilliant sunshine.  Enter Justin Rose coming off a missed cut but pretty focused.  Justin had just recorded an albatross into the simulator on Monday at the TGL league play in Florida.  Justin promptly nailed a 62  in the first round on the North Course and the rout was on.  Rose went wire to wire and never looked back.  Commentators dug deep into record books in an aborted attempt to create drama for a golf tournament that Rose completely dominated.    They were trying to find how many players had lost a tournament after being ahead by six shots or more.  They wasted a lot of research and air time doing this as Rose was never seriously threatened in this event.

Rose is 45 years old (young) and has a ton of experience and scar tissue, which forms a winning foundation and approach to every event he competes in.  You have to work hard just to compete on the PGA Tour.  Rose has been doing this for a long time and has rededicated himself to doing what is necessary to be competitive at the highest level.  At an age, when the body starts to challenge competitiveness against the young talent on tour, Rose’s driver ball speed of 180 mph is actually increasing from prior years.  It takes a geometric increase in commitment to maintain skills against a new army of ball strikers that are all hitting drivers 320 yards or more.

Fellow competitor Joel Dahmen was five shots back of Rose after two rounds and was philosophical about his chances.  Dahmen is a capable PGA veteran who has made a good living on the Tour but was struck how Rose was playing.  In the third round, Dahmen hit an approach shot to the difficult par 5, 13th hole directly into a sand divot that had been recently filled.  Dahmen could only shake his head and duff the shot out of this divot for an unfortunate bogey.  The divot rule of golf is one of the last ugly rules in golf that needs to be changed.  Dahmen’s ball looked like it had entered a small bunker hole in the fairway.  Dahmen is a colorful character and well regarded on tour, he quipped, “It’s Golf” when asked about the divot and Rose’s performance.

It’s notable that Rose won this event wire-to-wire a la Scottie Scheffler from the week before.  Rose is in a different position than Scheffler.  He had to focus and not yield to potential expectations letting competitors back in the fray.  He dispelled all of those notions by continuing to hit fairways and hole all the necessary putts required to keep that lead.  His outstanding performance resulted in a new tournament record.  Scheffler now has an expectation that he should win every tournament he enters–perhaps unrealistic but he seems to be a big factor in every event.

I believe the weather had a lot to do with the results of this event.  The field ganged up on the North Course producing a number of under par rounds.  In 2025, the winner of this event was  8 under par compared to Rose’s record 22 under par in 2026.

Torrey Pines South is a wonderful golf course with a back nine that is not going to yield very many birdies to these professionals.  A notable combination of toughness is the 12th and the 13th hole.   The  12th  hole  is  a  par  4 of 505 yards.  The fairway bunkers are strategically located to catch a number of professional tee shots.  Only about 25% of the field hit this green in regulation as wind conditions will also play a role in scoring.  The hole is one of the toughest on tour and plays about a half stroke over par.

The 13th is a monster par 5 of 621 yards.  Long hitting players will try to go at this green and usually do so at their peril.  Conditions have to be ideal and a number of guys executed the shot, but some of these shots went through the green into the spinach.  Pitching back into this green is not simple and bunker shots are hit to execute.  A second shot that misses the green can also retreat from the slope from the down trenched fairway and can end in a disappointing lie and poor result.

Justin Rose added another notch to his impressive career with this record setting victory.