The Genesis Invitational will not be taking place at The Riviera this year due to the fires in LA but it seems like the PGA Tour have made their mind up on the replacement course.
Despite fans calling for Cypress Point to be the new venue, the PGA Tour are instead going to hold the tournament at Torrey Pines.
The powers that be have been working to find a new venue for the event after members of the Riviera called for The Genesis to be moved.
Now, it looks like Torrey Pines has been chosen as the replacement venue, despite The Farmers Insurance Open set to take place at the same place this coming weekend.
Of course, Torrey Pines is one of the best courses on the circuit and has plenty of history itself.
And in terms of difficulty, one man who knows how challenging the course can be is six-time major winner, Phil Mickelson.
Phil Mickelson’s opinion on how difficult Torrey Pines is clear
With Mickelson being one of the most experienced players in the game, he certainly knows the nuances of a number of different courses around the world.
And when it comes to Torrey Pines, Mickelson – speaking back in 2021 – has laid out the obvious challenges the course brings.
“So when we play here at Torrey Pines, it’s in February. The golf course is a lot wetter and plays a lot longer, what starts to come out are the subtleties and the nuances. And with the fairways being contoured the way they are and being firm now, they’re going to be more difficult to hit. You’ve got to shape it into the fairways.
“And the greens are very challenging. There’s a lot of pitch, a lot of contour, and as they get firmer, like we saw today, from just a couple of days ago, they’re significantly firmer than just the last two days.
“It’s very difficult to get it to some of the pin positions, and it’s going to be a difficult test. As long as it is at sea level it’s going to be a difficult task, but it seems like the setup is pristine, and it’s going to be a fun, very difficult challenge.”
Adding further comment on the changes the course has made over the years, Mickelson admits this makes things even trickier.
“So I feel like — what’s happened for me is I spent so many hours as a kid that, when the course was redesigned, all that local knowledge went away. I really haven’t come out here and spent a ton of time. It’s hard to get a tee time out here, and when you do, it’s a long round.
“So I don’t spend a lot of time out here other than the Farmers. I really made an effort here, having the last week off, to spend time out here and really learn, relearn the greens. So I spent a lot of hours out here on the greens last week to see if I can get that local knowledge again, and we’ll see how it goes, but I had a lot of fun kind of relearning and spending a lot of time out here.”
Why Phil Mickelson was unhappy with Torrey Pines back in 2016
Quite remarkably, Mickelson actually submitted a bid to try and redesign the course back in 2014 but was ultimately beaten to the punch by 16-time winner, Tom Weiskopf.
At the time, Mickelson called the decision terrible as he struggled to understand why he’d not been afforded the chance.
“Actually, I don’t understand the politics of it all. It makes no sense,” Mickelson remarked. “I think it’s terrible business practices, but it’s what we live with here. I’m not bitter about it. I just kind of learned to accept that as being one of the sacrifices of living in California.”
With Torrey Pines now set to host two PGA events in a row, the course will be under the public eye more than ever.
If there are any issues, then you can imagine these comments from Mickelson will rear their head once more.
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