Strategy for Long Courses: Lessons from Torrey Pines South
Strategic framework for playing long, demanding courses without blowing up your scorecard
I spent most of my Thursday watching round 1 of the Farmer’s Insurance Open. I subscribe to ESPN+, which lets me stream a featured group and watch their entire round. I tend to prefer that over the main broadcast feed.
The issue with the main feed is that they’re constantly flipping between all the best shots happening across the course, which I think distorts what’s actually going on out there. When you watch a featured group, you see everything—all the mis-hits, the recovery shots, the scrambling. And the reality is, even the very best golfers in the world get genuinely humbled by Torrey Pines South.
As a San Diego native, I’ve had the privilege of playing Torrey South a handful of times, and I can say with some confidence: that course will absolutely kick your ass.
So I figured I’d write about what makes some courses so difficult—even for tour players—and how you can actually approach them strategically. I’m using Torrey as the example here because it’s one of the clearer illustrations of how length and design combine to create problems that require real thought to navigate.
What Makes Torrey Pines South Different
Torrey sits on the cliffs of La Jolla, and it truly is magical—ocean views, hang gliders, postcard par 3s etc... But don’t let it fool you. As soon as you start playing, all of that beauty disappears and what you’re left with is a lightning fast putt to save your bogey lol...
When it’s set up for Tour events, it stretches to around 7,800 yards. From the very back tees, it’s listed at 7,802 yards with a 78.8 course rating and 148 slope.
The length doesn’t help you out by providing easily hittable fairways either. The pros struggle with accuracy here. Historical driving accuracy numbers hover around 52% versus the Tour average of about 62%.
If the best drivers in the world are missing half the fairways, that tells you something about what the course is actually asking for.
Why This Type of Course Creates Specific Problems
Super long courses don’t just add distance. They change the entire equation of which clubs you’re hitting, from what lies, and to what targets.
1) Long approaches from the fairway
On a typical course you might hit wedge or 9-iron into some of the greens. But on Torrey, you’re hitting 5-iron and hybrid... And it’s not as though the greens are particularly large or forgiving either.
Arccos data from Torrey South shows this clearly: across 2,097 rounds with an average handicap of 9.54, the average score was 88.35.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Those same golfers on average shot 13.1 strokes worse than scratch golfers. So if normally a 9 handicap is shooting 9 strokes worse than a scratch player, at Torrey, they are shooting 13 strokes worse than a scratch player.
Why is this happening?
The answer is the approach shots. Particularly those 150-200 yard shots.
On long courses, short game can’t bail you out as consistently. You need to be able to hit quality long-iron approach shots.
