Impending Drought

Rory McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic, joining the following selected golfers in the points: Adrian Meronk, Cameron Young, Joaquin Niemann*, Adam Scott, and Nicolai Hojgaard. It was a decent showing for the pool out in the Middle East. We're done with the Euro Tour until the Scottish Open much later in the year.

At the American Express, Nick Dunlap became the first amateur golfer to win a TOUR event since Phil Mickelson did so in 1991. He missed out on a $1.5M payday, but I fully expect him to turn pro in the next couple of weeks. Nobody has Dunlap on their roster — obviously — but it's a good story worth watching... and one that proves the TOUR needs to get these young standouts into fields ASAP. Propping up aging "stars" that can't compete makes the product stale.

Moving on to this week, we have the Farmers Insurance Open at Torey Pines (north and south). In another sign of the times... Farmers has decided to pull their sponsorship of the event after next year. They join Wells Fargo and Honda who have also bailed on the ever growing cost to put your name on a tournament that only a few million people watch.

The field is equivalent to last week, with Xander, Cantlay, and Homa as the only top-10 golfers. Justin Thomas has WD'd — satisfied he's done enough to get into future Signature Events.

Torrey Pines is difficult, and most players honestly don't like it. It's great to look at, but the tournament really became prominent as the yearly start to Tiger Woods' season. Well... the Tiger-era is over... and thus Torrey just doesn't matter anymore.

That being said, the tournament this week is Wednesday to Saturday, to avoid going against NFL playoffs.

"A lone farmer standing on the cliffs of La Jolla, California. Staring off into the distance." by John Constable

Good luck!