Championship play gets underway Wednesday morning for San Diego’s famed professional golf tournament, since 1968 played in La Jolla at the coastal golf paradise of Torrey Pines.
The action will air at noon Wednesday and Thursday exclusively on the Golf Channel.
The Golf Channel will broadcast at noon Friday, with CBS taking over at 2 p.m. For the final day, the Golf Channel will air action at 11:30 a.m., before CBS steps in at 1:30 p.m.
For the past 16 years, the event has been known by the sponsor’s name, the Farmers Insurance Open. That will remain so until at least 2026, but change may be afoot.
Though the Century Club serves as local host for the tourney, the majority of sponsorship money comes from a named sponsor who deserves the title, as Farmers Insurance is putting up $20 million this year to cover the winner’s share of $1.6 million along with total prize money amounting to more than $9 million dollars.
Before Farmers, Buick served as the sponsor. Now there are unconfirmed reports that Farmers may bow out when its contract expires in 2026.
The Century Club is not merely a group of about 100 dedicated citizens, but a sports organization with 12 full-time staff members headed by CEO Marty Gorsich, a veteran of the sports entertainment business and formerly an executive with the San Diego Padres.
Gorsich told Times of San Diego that he likes to think of these kinds of sports events – particularly golf tournaments – as life style events.
In fact, for the first time this year the Century Club has a new slogan, “Come for the party, stay for the golf.”
But with changes in the American economy there is talk, spurred by a Jan. 11 story in Sports Business Journal, that the long run for Farmers Insurance may be coming to an end. Their current contract for the Open runs out in two years.
Of course, that commitment could easily be renewed. When asked about securing another generous partner, Gorsich told Times of San Diego that the responsibility lies both with the local group and the PGA Tour, but typically the tour carries the bulk of it and has many avenues to explore.
“We are going to get this year’s tournament into the rearview mirror and then sit down in a few weeks to give thought to the future, as we always do,” Gorsich said. “So, the Farmers sponsorship may well continue, but beginning after 2026 it might, just might, be time for San Diego golf to have a new name.”
The Torrey Pines Golf Course has a rich history, but not only as the host for the Farmers Insurance Open, which Tiger Woods has won a record seven times, more than twice the number of titles held by the next golfer on the list, San Diego’s own Phil Mickelson.
The course also has been a site for the U.S. Open, most recently in 2021, when Jon Rahm won.
