Gonzalo Fernández Castaño will play in his eighth tournament of the 2016-2017 PGA Tour season in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines (San Diego, California). The Spanish golfer’s goal is apparent: start to seriously accumulate points and to move up in the rankings for the FedEx Cup, where he’s already a bit behind.
There is some good news for the Madrid native. The bad news is also quite evident: he’s played in this tournament twice and hasn’t managed to shoot below a 72 on any of the Torrey Pines courses (the two first rounds are played on each of the courses, North and South, and the last two on the South). That being said, it doesn’t seem to be the place where the Spanish golfer feels the most comfortable…
The good news is also related, precisely, to the difficulty of the two courses. The Farmers has not been a low-scoring tournament lately: in 2016 the winner got -6, and in 2015 and 2014 it was -9; in 2013 Tiger won with -14, with a four-shot advantage over second place. So then, if we look at Gonzalo’s track record, the majority of his best scores were in tournaments where the winner finished with a maximum of -10, sometimes not even that. He’s good in tournaments with difficult playing conditions, on tough courses with tight scores. His best score in this tour was third place in the Arnold Palmer in 2014 with a total of -8, results with which he only reached the top thirty in previous weeks. In the 2014 Masters, where he finished in 26th place, Bubba Watson won with a -8, and in the US Open in 2013 (10th), Rose won with +1. It’s a simple equation: if he finally ends up being able to tame the Torrey, his options will go up exponentially at a place where a round at course par could even be considered a good score.
Fernández Castaño will play the first round starting at 9:20 am local time (6:20 pm Spanish time) on the North course at Torrey Pines with American golfers Will MacKenzie and Bryce Molder.
