“They’re not going to make decisions based on rankings. They trust what goes on inside the ropes.”

Rough between fairway and bunker on the South Course's par-4 10th. (Click to enlarge)

Tod Leonard looks at the possible impact of the Golf World player course ranking on venues like Torrey Pines, printing some of the player comments about the design which took a beating thanks in part to last year's high rough and narrow fairways.

According to first-year Farmers tournament director Peter Ripa...

“There are probably ghosts in everyone’s closet on the South, guys not hitting the right shot in a certain situation.”

Ripa said he is not concerned that an “inside golf” survey from anonymous players will have any impact on who chooses to play in the Farmers.

“Where guys have success is where they go back to,” Ripa said. “They’re not going to make decisions based on rankings. They trust what goes on inside the ropes.”

As for a brief Torrey Pines scouting report, the courses are in amazing condition with dense fairway lies, lots of grass on the greens and splendid turf all around. Last year the conditions were as good as I've ever seen, this year they are better and the course is drier even with Monday's rain. Kudos to superintendent Paul Cushing and his team.

There is actually more ryegrass rough than I would have suspected considering how little rain we've had, and certainly nothing like last year when early January was so wet. The greens are holding and the forecast good, so expect the conditions to conspire with the weather to make for a great week for scoring, even on the long-bomber-friendly South.