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The Farmers Insurance Open is an annual professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held in San Diego, California. Founded in 1952, the tournament has been held at Torrey Pines Golf Course, a 36-hole municipal facility in La Jolla, since 1968. The tournament is held in the early part of the season known as the "West Coast Swing".
The tournament is organized by the Century Club of San Diego. In the current format, players split the first 36 holes between the North and South Course, then play the final 36 holes on the South Course. The South Course has hosted the U.S. Open twice: Tiger Woods won in a playoff in 2008, and Jon Rahm won in 2021.
Although the San Diego Open began in 1952, the PGA Tour recognizes two earlier events of the same name: Leo Diegel won both events, in December 1927 and January 1929. An autumn event in 1956 and 1957, it was not held in 1958, then returned as a winter event in early 1959.
The event was played at Mission Valley Country Club in 1955, then went to Singing Hills Country Club in El Cajon in October 1956. The tournament returned to Mission Valley C.C. in 1957, where it stayed through 1963. Mission Valley changed its name to Stardust Country Club in 1962 (now Riverwalk Golf Club). After one edition in 1964 at Rancho Bernardo Country Club (now Rancho Bernardo Inn) in San Diego, it returned to Stardust for three years, through 1967.
In 1968, the event began its present relationship with Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, a 36-hole public facility owned by the City of San Diego. During those early editions at Torrey Pines, the course length was under 6,850 yards (6,265 m). Singer-actor Andy Williams was the celebrity host for the first 21 editions at Torrey Pines, through 1988.
Title sponsors were first added in 1955, with Convair added to the name for two years. In 1981, Wickes was the title sponsor for two years, followed by three with Isuzu. Shearson Lehman Brothers became the title sponsors in 1986, replaced by Buick in 1992 and Farmers Insurance in 2010.
From 2022 until 2025, the tournament started on Wednesday and concluded on Saturday, a day prior to the conference championships of the NFL playoffs; the event traditionally marks the beginning of CBS's PGA Tour season.
The South Course has hosted the U.S. Open twice: Tiger Woods won in a playoff in 2008, and Jon Rahm birdied the final two holes to win by a stroke in 2021.
Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records. Sources:
Records and milestones
Tournament course record: Torrey Pines, North Course - 61, Mark Brooks, 1990, and Brandt Snedeker, 2007; Torrey Pines, South Course - 62, Tiger Woods, 1999
Tiger Woods is the only seven-time winner of the tournament, and Phil Mickelson the only other to win more than twice.
Hall of Famer and San Diego native Gene Littler is the only amateur winner, achieving the feat in 1954, and awarded a five-piece tea set. Subsequently, as a professional, Littler was a runner-up three times (1969, 1974, 1978).
A memorable year in the tournament's history was 1982, when Johnny Miller outdueled Jack Nicklaus to win by one stroke.
Tiger Woods (2005–08) won four straight years, then won his fifth consecutive Torrey Pines tournament at the 2008 U.S. Open on the South Course that June. J. C. Snead (1975–76) and Phil Mickelson (2000–01) won in consecutive years.
Heavyweight boxer Joe Louis was invited to play in the San Diego Open in 1952 on a sponsor's exemption; Louis became the first African American ever to play in this PGA Tour event.