LA JOLLA, Calif. — Harris English is the defending champion of the Farmers Insurance Open. But Ludvig Aberg is the winner of the most recent professional golf event played at Torrey Pines.
English is the last person to hoist the Farmers tree trophy and pose with the surf board. Three weeks later, Aberg had Tiger Woods waiting on him behind the 18th green when he polished off his biggest PGA Tour victory yet.
This week provides a unique example of a course having two defending champions from two separate events a year ago. English won the Farmers in late January, and three weeks later Aberg returned to a course he held the 36-hole lead at, before getting sick on the weekend, in dominating fashion, winning the Genesis Invitational. The latter was relocated after fires in the Pacific Palisades area near Riviera forced the change in venue.
“I was playing with Harris English last week and we were both kind of saying that it’s — we’re both sort of defending champion next week, so it was a little weird,” Aberg said Wednesday ahead of the Tour’s annual stop at Torrey Pines.
This year, the Genesis returns to Riviera, so while Aberg will be the defending champion in three weeks time, English gets his first chance to defend a victory in four years at Torrey Pines.
“Somebody was asking, I can’t remember if it was one of our pro-am partners, he was like, ‘hey, you’re defending next week,’ kind of talking to me,” English said. “I was like, ‘well, he’s actually won more recently than I have.’ We’re kind of both defending coming into this week, so we had some good back and forth.”
Last year, English recorded 12 straight pars in the final round to win by a shot over Sam Stevens, ending a winless drought extending nearly four years. It was a victory that eventually led to him being selected as a captain’s pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and he returns to the Farmers ranked 11th in the world.
Now, he returns to a course he calls one of his favorites in the world.
“This is such a special spot for me,” English said. “Even before last year this is one of my favorite places on the Tour to come to. I came here in 2007, I played the U.S. Junior up at Rancho Santa Fe. I had never been to California before. Obviously I’d watched a lot of tournaments here at Torrey Pines, and my dad brought me out here. I hit some balls on the range out here. I think I had a burger dog out here on the range, checked it out.
“Little did I know that this would turn into one of my favorite courses, and to get a win here last year was kind of the cherry on top. I had been close here a few times and kind of always had that in the back of my mind that this is one of the places that I want to win at with all the history that is at this course. So it’s very special to come back and have a lot of good memories from here.”
For Aberg, there’s a bit of unfinished business at the Farmers, though he did get some redemption with his win last year.
Aberg got sick during last year’s third round, and a 74-79 on the weekend sent him tumbling to a T-42 finish. Last week, Aberg again got sick after two rounds of the American Express and was forced to withdraw.
“It was almost like literally to the day a year ago that I was struggling over here,” Aberg said. “Yep, don’t know what it is, something in the California water. I don’t know, that’s maybe I should stay away from next year.”
But this week, he’s back and has plenty of confidence on the storied links.
At last year’s Genesis, which was played exclusively on the South Course (the first two rounds of the Farmers are split between the North and the South), Aberg opened in 74 but shot 66 on Friday and Sunday, with a 70 in between, to finish at 12 under, good enough for a one-shot win over Maverick McNealy.
Aberg said he rough is up a bit on property this week, and the firmness of the green will make it a great test.
“Obviously this week you play the North Course as well, which kind of changes things a little bit, but it’s such a true test of golf and a really nice golf course to play,” Aberg said.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Harris English, Ludvig Aberg defending titles at Torrey Pines, Farmers
