Why does farmers insurance open start on wednesday

The Saturday finish at the Farmers Insurance Open could become an annual tradition.

The only question is whether a few other tournaments follow suit.

Farmers Insurance CEO Jeff Dailey told the San Diego Union-Tribune this week that the tournament will likely stick with its Wednesday-Saturday schedule for the foreseeable future. That shift allows the Farmers not to conflict with the NFL’s conference championship games on Sunday, and Golf Channel is using the open day on Torrey Pines’ South Course to broadcast, for the first time, the final round of an event on the Advocates Pro Golf Association, a circuit designed to promote diversity in the sport.

When asked whether the Farmers could conceivably switch back to its traditional Sunday finish, Dailey told the newspaper: “I don’t think so. It’s important to us that the ratings are strong, but we still get a tremendous amount of business benefit because we use this as motivation for our top agents around the country. That business benefit for us is probably stronger than a few incremental ratings points. If you take the ratings out of it, I like the Saturday finish better.”

Both the third and final rounds of the Farmers were broadcast on CBS, in primetime.

Full-field scores from Farmers Insurance Open

The altered schedule meant no early-week pro-am – which is a “net $1 million hit” for the event, according to tournament director Marty Gorsich – but he said the losses could be made up other ways, such as a tee-off gala.

“All the other elements are fine,” Gorsich told the newspaper. “I don’t see anything in our old format that says, ‘We’ve got to get back to that.’ People watching our event on national TV Friday, it might take a year for people to realize that. That’s how tradition gets built. It doesn’t start in the first year. It’s consistency over time for people to learn it and embrace it.”

Might other tournaments embrace the same schedule?

The first three Tour events of the new year – the Sentry Tournament of Champions (final week of regular season), Sony Open (wild-card playoff round) and American Express (division playoff round) – all have late Sunday finishes, when the highly popular NFL’s season is nearing its conclusion. NFL games accounted for 48 of the top 50 most-watched TV shows during the regular season, when the Tour's fall schedule gets underway.

Dailey told the newspaper that the date change has been popular with players.

“I won’t say who,” he said, “but someone’s prediction was that three or four more tournaments might shift their dates as well.”

It has been staged on the picturesque bluffs of Torrey Pines the past half-century, annually offering one of the strongest fields among PGA Tour stops.

For years, it also has occupied the most coveted spot on the early calendar — the NFL’s off week between its conference championship games and the Super Bowl.

When it added a 17th game this season, the NFL pushed the schedule a week. That meant the 2022 Farmers would coincide with the NFL championship games.

What to do?

The solution was simple enough — start a day early.

The Farmers will be played Wednesday through Saturday for the first time.

It is, in fact, the only tournament on the PGA schedule with a Saturday finish.

“The NFL forced the conversation, said Marty Gorsich, Farmers Insurance Open CEO, “but this could well be something we look back in two years and go, ‘Wow, I’m so glad that that happened because look what it’s allowed us to do.’ ”

The week opened Monday with visitors gushing about the sun-splashed grounds. The forecast is for more of the same throughout the tournament, which again boasts a strong 156-player field.

It includes six of the top 10 and 12 of the top 20 players in the world rankings, led by No. 1 Jon Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open the last time he toured Torrey.

Others ranked in the top 10 include No. 4 Dustin Johnson, No. 6 Justin Thomas, No. 7 Xander Schauffele, No. 9 Bryson DeChambeau and No. 10 Hideki Matsuyama.

Schauffele, the Scripps Ranch High and San Diego State alum, was among five players who tied for second last year, five shots behind Patrick Reed (who is in the field).

Hometown favorite Phil Mickelson, a two-time Farmers winner, returns for his 29th appearance in the event.

Mickelson, a noted NFL aficionado, and his peers will have Sunday to themselves to watch football, spend time with family or any number of other things when they would be otherwise occupied on the golf course.

That’s just one of the benefits of the Saturday finish from the perspective of tournament organizers, who first announced the change four months ago.

“If we can start to create some history and tradition around this,” Gorsich said, “we could really embrace this and turn it into our own.

“It would be our differentiator, our thing that makes San Diego different from other events. ... Every challenge brings opportunities.”

Had it stayed with a Sunday finish, Gorsich said, the broadcast itself would have been problematic.

“CBS, our broadcast partner, has one of those football games,” Gorsich said. “It wasn’t even like we would be on TV against the NFL. We wouldn’t be on TV at all, unless we switched to another network, and that brings a whole bevy of challenges.”

Instead, CBS will broadcast the Farmers on Friday (which is unprecedented for a regular tour stop) and Saturday, with air times in the evening for much of the country (starting at 2 p.m. PT Friday and a half-hour earlier Saturday).

In addition, if the tournament is extended because of darkness or a playoff, there now is the opportunity for a Sunday morning finish rather than Monday.

“So instead of sort of disappearing (Monday) because everybody’s at work, you wake up, you could watch the finish and then go right into two NFL games,” Gorsich said.

The earlier start wipes out the traditional Wednesday pro-am. With nearly 200 amateurs on the course — most of them (or their companies) paying $8,000 for the privilege — that’s at least a $1 million financial hit.

It is being offset this year with assistance from the tour and title sponsor.

Gorsich envisions turning even that negative into a positive. Perhaps next year when organizers have a full year to plan something special.

“Instead of the pro-am, what if we had a tee-off dinner and you got to play cornhole with Dustin Johnson for an hour?” Gorsich said. “You might make as much or more money. The pro-am was people who golfed. The chance to rub elbows with a pro in a fun, safe, casual environment where they can just be real people, anybody can do that, not just golfers. My potential buyer audience actually grows.”

Speaking of audience, that will definitely grow on the grounds this year.

The 2021 Farmers was played without fans in attendance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spectators are allowed back this year without restrictions. No proof of vaccination required at entrances. No masks required on the course.

“None of our tents or structures at the Fan Experience are enclosed, so you’re not going to have any mandates,” Gorsich said. “We’re watching the county and the state, but everything they are telling us is that we are in line with things we need to be doing.

“It’s an open-air golf course where you can spread out. Even if we had colder or wet weather that might force people into cover, but especially with the climate with the way it is, you’ve got the room to spread out as you choose.”

Top groupings

Groupings for the first two rounds were announced Monday, with the highest-ranked players in the field — Rahm, Johnson and Thomas — playing together. They go off No. 1 South at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday.

Mickelson tees off at 9:30 a.m. on the South’s first tee, grouped with the tournament’s last two winners, Reed and Australia’s Marc Leishman.

The group just ahead of Mickelson includes two-time champion Jason Day and Matsuyama.

Schauffele opens the tournament on the North, going off No. 1 at 10:40 a.m., with Tony Finau and Hudson Swafford, who is fresh off his American Express victory in the desert.

Another group certain to draw a crowd is the threesome that includes DeChambeau, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. They tee off No. 1 North at 9:40 a.m.

The field for the $8.4 million tournament ($1,512,000 to the winner) will be trimmed to the top 65 and ties for the final two rounds.

Monday qualifiers

The final four spots in the field were determined Monday at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta.

Jonathan Byrd, the 2002 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, shot a 7-under 65 for the low score. Brent Grant, Maxwell Sear and Jared de Toit, all at 68, earned the other three spots.

This week marks the Farmers Insurance Open – but many viewers have been wondering why this year’s event is running from Wednesday to Saturday, rather than the usual Thursday to Sunday.

The Torrey Pines event was brought forward by a day to avoid a clash with the NFL on the TV schedule. 

For years tournament has taken place on the NFL’s off week between the conference championship matches and the Super Bowl, meaning it occupied one of the prime slots in the PGA Tour’s calendar with a near-monopoly on viewers. 

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But because the NFL has added a 17th game to its regular season this year, the schedule was pushed back by a week. 

Tournament chief executive Marty Gorsich said NFL bosses initiated the conversation over the potential change.

However, he claimed there was a choice between moving the Farmers Insurance Open, or the final day not being broadcast at all. 

Gorsich added the new schedule could be something the event “embraces” in the future. 

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"The NFL forced the conversation, but this could well be something we look back in two years and go, ‘wow, I’m so glad that that happened because look what it’s allowed us to do’,” he said. 

“If we can start to create some history and tradition around this we could really embrace this and turn it into our own. It would be our differentiator. 

"It wasn’t even like we would be on TV against the NFL. We wouldn’t be on TV at all."

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