The South Course at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, is the site of this week’s U.S. Open, bringing back memories of Tiger Woods’ dramatic 2008 major victory over Rocco Mediate. The course is also the annual home of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open.
The South originally was designed by the father/son duo of William P. Bell and William F. Bell, and the layout opened in 1957. Previously, the site near San Diego had been a World War II U.S. Army installation named Camp Callan, and it also served as an auto racetrack after that war before being converted into a golf course.
With one of the best cliffside settings imaginable for golf, the South has been renovated several times. The teams of Billy Casper-David Rainville and Stephen Halsey-Jack Daray Jr. worked on it, and in recent decades Rees Jones made many changes – most lately in 2019 to several holes. The layout can be stretched to 7,802 yards off the back tees.
The South ranks No. 7 in California on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It also is tied for No. 40 on the Top 100 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for the whole U.S., and it ranks No. 107 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts opened before 1960 in the U.S.
Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players will face this week. Check out each hole below.