Time to plop down the welcome mat.
The golfers’ presence is as comforting as the empathy we share after Torrey Pines Golf Course was selected to lend a hand.
The Farmers Insurance Open has come and gone, but the door isn’t shut on professional golf in our region. With a heavy heart, the Genesis Invitational will move from the storied Riviera Country Club to the safety of Torrey Pines, Feb. 13-16.
While Riviera survived the fire that ravaged the surrounding Pacific Palisades area, the right call was an easy call. With first responders and shell-shocked residents still sifting through the wreckage, the optics and logistics of Tiger Woods hosting his annual event at Riviera was untenable.
So it’ll be another 72 holes of top-notch golf for the locals to enjoy while funds, and awareness, of those absorbing the haymaker of death and destruction remain in the spotlight. The loss of 29 lives and nearly 15,000 structures stands above any petty differences that often surface when San Diego and Los Angeles square off.
Instead of chanting “Beat L.A.” and giving the side-eye to our northerly neighbors, San Diego County is embracing the event, and its significance, with no second thoughts.
“This is an opportunity for San Diego to come together and do something with our brothers and sisters up in L.A.,” Marty Gorish, CEO of the Century Club that operates the Farmers, told the Associated Press. “I really, truly feel like that’s a part of it.
“I think here in San Diego we compete so much with L.A. on the field and consider them a rival, yet we’re all SoCal together.”
SoCal strong is just that and with a star-studded field playing for the $20 million purse in a designated PGA signature event, the Genesis Invitational hanging its shingle at our seaside track is huge.
Its arrival comes on the heels of a ho-hum Farmers won by Harrison English, who was a 100-1 long shot before the event. The Farmers field did little to move the needle, as most of the PGA’s biggest stars aimed for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am instead of the Farmers, with its lower payouts.
But the Tour’s top players, and possibly Woods, will zero in on the Genesis Invitational, which will transition from being held at one of the world’s most famous private golf clubs to a public course that has few peers among municipal layouts.
Woods certainly knows his way around Torrey Pines. With his lengthy resume of success on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, some have joked it should be called “Torrey Woods” or “Tiger Pines.”
After making his mark there in the Junior Worlds Championship in his youth, Woods won eight times as a pro at Torrey Pines and that includes his dramatic comeback to snatch the 2008 U.S. Open from Rocco Mediate in a playoff.
Woods hasn’t tipped his hand yet on his participation. But since he suffered serious leg injuries stemming from a car accident in 2021, the Genesis Invitational is the only non-major Woods has entered.
If Woods is a go, it would mark his first showing at Torrey Pines since he finished tied for ninth in 2020.
Woods, an Orange County native, has perfect vision about the reason to exit Riviera for Torrey Pines.
“The devastation that is ongoing with the L.A. fires is such a tragedy and being from California, it hits home,” Woods posted on X. “My heart is with those who have suffered unimaginable loss.”
San Diego knows.
It has experienced numerous wildfires that in an instant can uproot communities and bring devastation to our slice of heaven. We were basically spared during the recent wind event, but that’s no guarantee for the future.
So for one year at Torrey Pines, we’ll embrace this L.A. tradition and pitch in where we can. Golf is the focus, but this event is about much more.
Contact Jay Paris at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports.
