Justin Rose exposed an unfair advantage at the Farmers Insurance Open 

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Justin Rose is dominating Torrey Pines at the Farmers Insurance Open.

The 45-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down, using his wealth of experience to carry a four-shot lead into the weekend’s action at 17-under par.

Since 2024, Justin Rose has been resurrected in the latter years of his career. He came second at the 2024 Open Championship, lost a playoff to Rory McIlroy at The Masters, and beat JJ Spaun to the St. Jude Championship. 

Now he’s taking momentum from the Ryder Cup, where Rose played a crucial role in Europe’s win, into the 2026 season. He’s in pole position to win his second PGA Tour event in six starts.

But he was given an unfair advantage at Torrey Pines, which gave him a head start over half the field. 

Starting on the North Course was a big advantage for Justin Rose

The Farmers Insurance Open is split over two courses at Torrey Pines: the North Course and the South Course. On the opening day, half the field starts on the North and half on the South, and on Friday, they play the other half.  

Then, those who made the cut play the entire weekend on the South Course, which has hosted major championships in the past. That said, it’s much harder than the other track.

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And Rose benefited from this. He started his week on the North Course and went 10-under. Yes, he had to play extremely well in order to post that score, but once he had, he was able to settle into his remaining three rounds on the harder South. 

That’s been the recipe for the majority of winners at this event in the 2020s. In fact, six of the last seven winners of the Farmers Insurance Open have started on the North Course, with Marc Leishman being the only exception in 2020. Rose himself benefited from this during his 2019 victory at Torrey Pines. 

Beyond making the field size smaller and making every player play the same course each day, there isn’t a lot to be done. But it’s interesting that one of the biggest events of the PGA Tour season has such a clear blueprint for victory, and it all comes down to the luck of the draw.

Justin Rose admits he would choose to start on the North Course at Torrey Pines

This was put to Rose after his incredible second round, where he shot seven-under on the tricky South Course.

The Englishman admitted that if he had a choice, he would start his tournament on the North Course, but he did make an interesting point, which makes the apparent advantage not so clear.

Rose said, “It’s nice to sort of compartmentalize it that way. I think obviously, it also means that you’ve got to get out of the blocks, you’ve got to go and play the North well. Obviously, sometimes I feel like if your game’s scratchy you can maybe scratch out 1 under on the South and then day two make some.

“If you shoot 1 under by being a bit scratchy on the North, it’s hard to then get the 7 on the South that you’re going to need to get into contention.

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“So, you know, it swings and roundabouts on that one. But yeah, if you had your choice, you’d play well on the North, and then you would focus everything for three days, get the momentum going on the South.”

A man with the experience of Rose would know exactly which course he’d rather start on, but he had to take advantage of this on the North. He did exactly that, then followed it up with an incredible round on day two to put one hand on the trophy.

Now, we wait to see if he can ride that momentum over the weekend.