Sunday Swing | Homa Strikes In California Again

Welcome back to the Sunday Swing Presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week one of the best courses on Tour was on display for the playing of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. 

Farmers Insurance Open - Tournament History

The Farmers Insurance Open was established back in 1952 and is hosted at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, CA. Torrey Pines features two championship courses (North and South) which feature ocean views along difficult, long holes. One of the greatest moments in golf took place here in 2008, when Tiger Woods beat Rocco Mediate in a playoff for the U.S. Open on a broken leg. Jon Rahm has also won the Farmers here as well as the U.S. Open in 2021. Last year, Luke List was able to defeat young star Will Zalatoris in a playoff. Every year regardless of the tournament, Torrey produces iconic views and usually results in a dramatic finish. The previous five champions of this event are as follows: 

• 2023 - Max Homa (-13)
• 2022 - Luke List (-15)
• 2021 - Patrick Reed (-14)
• 2020 - Justin Rose (-21)
• 2019 - Jason Day (-10) 

The Big Swing 

This week the Big Swing goes to the King of California, Max Homa. This week Homa claimed his sixth PGA Tour title and his fourth in his home state of California. Homa has picked up two victories in each of the last two seasons and has started to become one of the most consistently good players on Tour thanks to his elite ball striking and putting abilities. He entered the week as the 16th ranked player in the world, but he faced some fierce competition including Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris, and Collin Morikawa. Homa opened the week with a 68 to set himself up nicely. As the week progressed, it was underdog Sam Ryder who found himself at the top of the leaderboard after the first three rounds.

On Sunday, Homa opened with a bogey-free 32 on the opening nine that applied pressure to Ryder and others near the top such as Rahm, Morikawa, and Tony Finau. The pressure eventually got to Ryder, who made a costly double bogey at the 15th. Homa took advantage by making birdie at the difficult par-3 16th hole, thanks to a beautiful 4-iron to 15 feet. He followed that up with a par at 17 and a birdie at the par-5 18th to win by two over Keegan Bradley. Morikawa shot 3-under 69 on Sunday to finish solo 3rd, his second top-5 of the young season. Rahm was coming off of back-to-back victories and had a real shot to make it three in a row, but he struggled in the final round and shot a 2-over 74 to finish T-7

Winner’s Bag - Max Homa 

Team Titleist gets on the board ending the streak for Callaway, marking the first win on Tour in the 2023 calendar year for the TSR woods. Of course, TSR already begun accumulating wins during the fall months of 2022. Off the tee, Homa was repping the Titleist TSR3 driver (10 degrees). He also has a TSR3 3-wood (16.5 degrees), and TSR2 7-wood (21 degrees). Powering his iron game is a T100S 4-iron, T100 5-iron, and Titleist 620 MB 6-9 iron. In the short end of the bag, Homa uses a set of Vokey SM9 wedges that includes a 46, 50, 56, and 60 degree. Homa has also used the same flatstick for a few years now -- a Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Prototype. This week, Homa finished 10th in strokes gained: off the tee, 13th in  strokes gained: approach, and 20th in strokes gained: putting.