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'Must-have' hotels key to Genesis Invitational's move to Torrey Pines

Bryce Miller, The San Diego Union-Tribune on

Published in Golf

SAN DIEGO — The PGA Tour’s decision to move the fire-displaced Genesis Invitational from Los Angeles’ Riviera Country Club to Torrey Pines Golf Course came down to a dizzying list of moving parts.

And one big hotel question. Or hotel questions, plural, given that The Lodge at Torrey Pines and neighboring Hilton are must-haves for the operation of the tournaments.The Lodge and Hilton house the locker room, player registration and dining, drug testing, weather officials, the media facility and more.

In short: No Lodge, no Hilton, no tournament.

“All those things are in there,” Century Club CEO and Farmers Insurance Open tournament director Marty Gorsich said.

Things came together Thursday. On Friday morning, the PGA Tour announced the tournament would be played at Torrey Pines, site of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open.

Hosted by golf icon Tiger Woods, the Genesis is one of eight “signature events” in 2025 that offer more purse money and FedEx Cup points. The Genesis will pay out $20 million to players, compared to $9.3 million at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open.

Friday’s announcement means San Diego will be the site of two PGA Tour events in a span of three weeks.

The time between now and then will be spent answering an array of questions.

How will greenside chalets and other hospitality areas be filled? Will Genesis officials provide volunteers or will the Century Club fill the gaps? How will tickets be sold? What about shuttles, parking and other expenses?

“We have said to them, we’ll handle the back-of-house things like picnic tables and tents, the caterers and things like that,” Gorsich said. “We’ll make sure it’s all ready to go. We’re kind of like the party planners. (PGA Tour and Genesis officials) have to decide on tickets and those sorts of things. And do they want to check the box and get it on TV? Or do they want to have a giant community affair?

“How many of their sponsors up there want to come down and fill these (chalets)? We take six to eight months to sell and fill those (for the Farmers), so you don’t know if they’re going to be ghost towns, opened up to the public or sold at a premium price.

“We’re not in charge of that.”

Questions will continue to swirl about how tee times already booked by the public at Torrey Pines will be handled.

Gorsich said city officials, who operate Torrey Pines, have committed to move those impacted by the tournament shuffle. Some will play as scheduled.

 

“The course will open back up” after the Farmers Insurance Open concludes Saturday, Gorsich said. “I just don’t know how long until they shut it down to get ready for the tournament.”

Some wonder if Woods would attempt to play in his event. The 82-time PGA Tour winner, the greatest golfer of his generation, has a rich history at Torrey. He has won eight times on the course, including at the 2008 U.S. Open.

“There are two questions, right?” Gorsich said. “Would Tiger love to play at Torrey and feel healthy enough that he can go four days and find his glory at his tournament? Would we love to see him play? Yes.

“His physical limitations, something I can’t speak to, I don’t have any insights on that. (Torrey) is a long course. Is he in tournament-pro, best-in-the-world shape? I haven’t been hearing any buzz about him playing anytime soon.

“We saw him play in (his start-up league) the TGL, but that’s only a few holes in a temperature-controlled room and no walking. I don’t where he sits on all those things.”

Zach Johnson, winner of the 2007 Masters and 2015 British Open, offered his thoughts about the move after his Friday round at the Farmers.

“You’re talking about a situation that’s unprecedented,” Johnson said. “You have to make the best of a situation that’s really unfortunate. There’s only so many courses (nearby) that can house an event of that magnitude.

“The golf course, I don’t have to explain that it’s magnificent.”

Playing the same course in a short period of time is not a deal-breaker, he said.

Johnson experienced it in July of 2020 when the COVID pandemic forced the Workday Charity Open and The Memorial to be played on consecutive weeks at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

“We played back-to-back weeks at Jack (Nichlaus’) place,” Johnson said. “The second week was the normal Memorial. Given situations like that, you have to make the best of it.

“I think playing twice (at Torrey) in a month’s span would be awesome. The best players in the world, the more they can get their feet on the grounds, the better.”


©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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