The West Coast Swing opens with a dance that might feel like it’s in double time. Two tournaments, five courses across eight days and two cuts in six days. To accommodate Full-Field Events of 156 golfers at this latitude in January, it’s all PGA TOUR membership can handle and then some.

Immediately on the heels of The American Express, which concluded on Sunday, is this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, which opens Wednesday. A traditional 36-hole cut will fall on Thursday, while the final round is scheduled for Saturday.

For more details on the format, what the pair of courses at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, California, presents and more, continue reading below.

Power Rankings for Farmers Insurance Open

Rank	Players	Comment
15	Ben GriffinUnited States of America	Just keeps ballin’. Connected another four sub-70s at The American Express for a T7. It’s his sixth top 10 since last year’s T9 and 11th top 20 of the last 10 months. The consistency is directly related to his balance.
14	Thomas DetryBelgium	Steadily rising in the ranks and headed toward the elite, Torrey Pines presents another set of stages on which he can showcase his grit. He’s already 2-for-2 with a T20 last year, and he opened 2025 with a T5 at The Sentry.
13	Maverick McNealyUnited States of America	Opted to rest last week ahead of what could be a sparkling West Coast Swing. He’s cashed five of six times at Torrey Pines, so he marries that experience with his recent surge of form and the confidence it’s generated.
12	Max GreysermanUnited States of America	With a T24 at The Sentry and a T7 at The American Express, he’s already eliminated a sophomore slump. Now has five top 10s in last eight starts. This week’s challenge will be to extend his active streak of 18 red numbers.
11	Shane LowryIreland	Back inside the ropes for the first time in over two months since a T3 at the DP World Tour Championship, punctuated eight consecutive top-15 finishes worldwide. Ended a five-year hiatus at Torrey Pines last with a T25.
10	Sungjae ImSouth Korea	Got caught up in the opening challenge of the Stadium Course last week and couldn’t recover from a 5-over 77, so he got another day of unintentional rest to saddle up for Torrey Pines where he’s 5-for-6 with a pair of top 10s.
9	Sahith TheegalaUnited States of America	Although he slipped gears in both starts in Hawaii, his cream usually rises to the top on tougher tracks. Hasn’t missed a cut in three tries at Torrey Pines and made noise with a T4 in 2023. Comfort level on Poa annua helps.
8	Taylor PendrithCanada	Although his form over the last nine months is the best of his career with a dozen top 20s worldwide, he’s already done some damage at Torrey Pines. He’s cashed all three times with a T16 in 2022 and a T9 last year.
7	Aaron RaiEngland	This could be special. The Brit led the PGA TOUR in fairways hit in 2024 and broke through for his first victory. Excels essentially across the board, so he’s a superb fit for Torrey Pines where he’s 3-for-3 with a T6 in 2022.
6	Tony FinauUnited States of America	With a T15 at The Sentry, he wasted no time is erasing doubt about his left knee, on which he had surgery in the fall. All nine of his 10 paydays at the Farmers are top 25s. Six were top 10s, including in the last two editions.
5	Will ZalatorisUnited States of America	With a solid start to the season (T26, T12) piggybacking a strong finish in 2024 (4-for-4 worldwide, three top 20s), he’s returned to our circle of trust. That’s rewarded with Torrey Pines where he has a T7, a P2 and a T13.
4	Keegan BradleyUnited States of America	Quite the early story brewing as the U.S. Ryder Cup captain opened 2025 with a respective T15 and T6 on the Opening Drive. Now treated to Torrey Pines where he’s 7-for-7 since 2017 with a runner-up (2023) among three top fives.
3	Ludvig ÅbergSweden	It’s ridiculous that he’s already arrived at a place in time when it’d be noteworthy only if he didn’t deserve lofty position in the Power Rankings no matter the venue. Just don’t hold your breath; T9 in debut here last year.
2	Hideki MatsuyamaJapan	It’s tough to envision his career without a win at Torrey Pines, but that’s the current reality. Never missed a start, so he loves the place. Two top 10s among four top 15s since 2018. Opened 2025 with victory at The Sentry.
1	Jason DayAustralia	The 37-year-old continues to populate leaderboards – as he did with a T3 at The American Express – but arguably the bigger story is that he’s stayed healthy. Two wins at the Farmers (2015, 2018) highlight seven top 10s.

A few of the rookies on the PGA TOUR this season aren’t that far separated from final exams as undergrads. So, while the Farmers is just the fourth of 46 tournaments on the 2025 schedule, they probably can’t help but feel like they’ve been cramming to learn everything they can about the tests across this fortnight.

Last week, a triumvirate of tracks hosted The American Express in the Coachella Valley. The restored Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA WEST proved to be distinctly more difficult than its co-hosts, which was somewhat unexpected, but nothing is more predictable than how the South Course at Torrey Pines will challenge compared to the North that shares hosting duties.

Unlike last week’s lesson, neither the South nor the North has been modified for the Farmers. Consider that a bone to the returning participants, who will feel prideful if they break par on the South in any round. Perennially one of the toughest par 72s of the season, it was tamed for a scoring average of 72.40 last year. Meanwhile, the North, which also is a stock par 72, rolled over for 69.5.

The field splits in half and alternates playing each course in the first two rounds. When the weather cooperates, as it will again this week, expect a difference of approximately two and a half strokes between the courses. (Only the South hosts the third and final rounds.) In the last six years, the smallest margin the North has played easier than the South was in 2019 at 2.134 strokes lower.

Finding fairways on both courses isn’t easy, but the South punishes at a PGA TOUR-long 7,765 yards, so golfers on it will inflate the field average if they hit at least 12 greens in regulation (GIR) per round. When they’re on the North, which stretches to just 7,258 yards with 6,000-square-foot greens that are 20-percent larger than the South, if they total 13 GIR, they could be weighing down the average. That’s a massive deviation. In a very fair sense, a sound strategy is to treat the entirety of the first 36 holes as one round. It’s a half-marathon within the sprint.

Both courses are overseeded, and all greens are a blend of Bentgrass and Poa annua. As always, they will be ready to touch 13 feet on the Stimpmeter. The thickest of the rough on both properties could exceed four inches.

Aside from the likelihood of a morning marine layer every day, the only day of significance as it concerns the weather happens to align with Saturday’s finale. The energy that will encroach on the area will bring the potential of rain and the promise of healthy breezes off the Pacific Ocean. After three pleasant days with daytime temperatures climbing into the 60s or even higher, Saturday’s high would be doing well to reach the upper 50s.

This is when the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational will begin. For the fourth straight year, the annual 36-hole contest at Torrey Pines will open on the North on Saturday and finish on the South on Sunday.

While the winner of the Farmers will pocket the usual plethora of perks, others will be chasing a spot in the Aon Swing 5. The Farmers represents the finish line for entry into next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is the second Signature Event of the season.

All who finish inside the top 10 would be eligible for a top-10 exemption into the WM Phoenix Open on Feb. 6-9, which would contribute as the last stop in the Aon Swing 5 for The Genesis Invitational that follows. However, entry for that category can be on the bubble in Arizona, so if any top 10s at Torrey Pines don’t crack the field of 132 at TPC Scottsdale, the top-10 exemption would spill over to the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld on Feb. 20-23.