This week’s PGA Tour stop is the Farmers Insurance Open. We look back at 10 of the event’s most memorable moments.
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This week’s PGA Tour stop is the Farmers Insurance Open. We look back at 10 of the event’s most memorable moments.
Seven shots back after 36 holes, Tiger Woods rallied to win his third straight Buick Invitational. Woods’ seventh straight win overall brought him within four of Byron Nelson’s 1945 mark of 11 in a row. “To be mentioned in the same breath with Mr. Nelson is very special,” Woods said. Charles Howell III finished second, his ninth second-place finish since his only Tour victory, in the 2002 Michelob Championship. Three weeks later, however, Howell would get win No. 2, at Riviera.
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Tiger Woods got his 2008 season off to a flying start, winning the Tour’s San Diego stop for a sixth time (and fourth in a row), by a record eight strokes. It was his 62nd PGA Tour win, tying Arnold Palmer for fourth place on the all-time list. Five months later Woods would return to Torrey Pines and score an even more memorable win, in the U.S. Open. That, however, would be his final major to date.
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Craig Stadler thought he had finished in a three-way tie for second place – until he was notified that he had been disqualified for “building a stance” in violation of the rules. On Saturday, with his ball under a tree, Stadler had played a shot from his knees, putting a towel down to keep his pants clean. A clip of the shot was shown on Sunday as part of the tournament highlights, and some TV viewers called in to rat Stadler out. In 1995, with the tree dying from a fungus, Stadler was invited to take it down with a chain saw. He happily complied, even autographing branches for spectators.
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Phil Mickelson defeated Frank Lickliter with a double bogey – yes, you read that right – on the third extra hole. Both players hit their tee shots into a canyon, and both then hit provisional tee shots. Lickliter found his first ball and had to return to the tee. Mickelson didn’t find his, but a spectator did, so he had to re-tee, too. This time he hit a tree, but found the green on his next shot. Lickliter hit a wedge to 12 feet, well inside Mickelson’s ball, but he three-putted, making Mickelson the first back-to-back winner of the event since 1976.
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Tiger Woods wrapped up his eighth win as a pro at Torrey Pines – seven regular Tour stops and one U.S. Open – by a four-shot margin in a Monday finish. It was the 75th win of his career. Woods would go on to win four more times in 2013, earning Player of the Year awards from the PGA Tour and PGA of America.
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Overshadowed by his booming drives, John Daly’s touch around the greens often gets short shrift. But in 2004 it helped him earn his first win in nine years. In a playoff with Chris Riley and Luke Donald, Daly hit a 100-foot bunker shot that stopped inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie, then watched his two opponents miss their birdie bids from inside 6 feet. “I take my hat off to Johnny,” Riley said. “He’s been through a lot. To see him win is great.”
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Just three months after his father died of cancer, an emotional Bubba Watson earned his second PGA Tour victory, defeating Phil Mickelson by one shot. “I thought about him after I made the putt on 18,” Watson said. “I looked up to the sky. But at the same time I knew Phil Mickelson’s a great wedge player so I couldn’t get too emotional yet.” Mickelson tried to hole a wedge shot for a tying eagle on the final hole, even sending caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay ahead to tend the pin, but his shot came up 4 feet short.
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Tiger Woods’ run at Byron Nelson’s record of 11 consecutive wins came to an end at one of Woods’ favorite venues – Torrey Pines. Phil Mickelson’s first victory in more than a year halted Woods’ win streak at six. Woods, who made up a seven-shot deficit in seven holes, finished T-2, four shots back. “I wasn’t out to end the streak. I don’t want to be the bad guy,” Mickelson said. “I just wanted to win the tournament.”
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Pete Brown was the first African American to win a PGA Tour event – the 1964 Waco Turner Open. Six years later he earned his only other PGA Tour win, defeating Tony Jacklin in a playoff in San Diego. Don’t feel too bad for Jacklin, though; four months later he would capture a consolation prize – the U.S. Open.
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Jon Rahm’s professional career began with a lot of hype, and he quickly delivered. Rahm won his first Tour event by playing the back nine at Torrey Pines South in 6-under 30. He eagled the par-5 13th and then rolled in a 60-footer at the last for another eagle and a three-stroke victory.
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