Changes leave Torrey Pines Golf Course's future as PGA Tour site unclear

Torrey Pines Golf Course just wrapped up a Farmers Insurance Open that featured picture-perfect weather and a respected, accomplished winning player. But moving forward, there are questions about this event’s future. 

The 2026 tournament signified the end of Farmers Insurance as the title sponsor for the Torrey Pines event. After long sponsorship runs from Farmers Insurance and Buick, who will sponsor the tournament moving forward?

The PGA is also revamping its calendar for next season. The 2027 PGA Tour could have fewer tournaments and tournaments in different spots on the calendar than those tournaments have been before, all of which puts the future of a PGA tournament at Torrey in a precarious position.

“This isn’t just about Torrey Pines, it’s about how Torrey fits into larger ecosystem, and the PGA wants to get that house of cards sorted out so its stable,” said Marty Gorsich, CEO of the tournament formerly known as the Farmers Insurance Open.

While some see questions about the PGA’s future at Torrey Pines, Gorsich sees an opportunity to make Torrey one of the PGA’s new elevated events, which means more prize money and higher ranked golfers in the field.

“Our city has the pieces — great city and great golf course. If we can secure that opportunity, then we can turn it up a couple notches and make this tournament even better,” Gorsich said.

“I’m excited to see what this event could grow into and see how much more significant it could be,” said Daniel Kuperschmid, president and CEO of San Diego Tourism Authority.

The Farmers Insurance Open had a local economic impact of $25 million annually in the San Diego region.

Scott Minto, director of the Sports MBA program at San Diego State University, says golf fans come for multiple days and are traditionally affluent with lots of spending power to spread around San Diego hotels, restaurants and tourists locations.

“In an absence of having a Final Four or Super Bowls, having an event of this magnitude that draws people from other states and countries to spend dollars in San Diego matters very much,” Minto said. “Having big-time global events like this are critical.”

The wonderful weather for this past Farmers Open created visually stunning images of San Diego being plastered across traditional and social media for the past week. It was basically hours and days of free advertising the city could never afford to buy.

“It is just an unbelievably valuable commercial for the city of San Diego,” Minto said. “For San Diego tourism to run those ads would cost millions of dollars.”

“It’s amazing, and to have that much media exposure across the United States is incredible,” Kuperschmid said.

An official announcement on Torrey Pines’ future tournament should come in March or April when the PGA is expected to announce the 2027 tour events and dates.