farmers insurance – Syndication Server

Report: Farmers Insurance won’t renew agreement to host PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines

Another longtime PGA Tour tournament sponsor seems to be on its way out.

Farmers Insurance, which has been the title sponsor of the San Diego event at Torrey Pines since 2010, will not renew its agreement with the PGA Tour after its current contract expires in 2026, Sports Business Journal reported Thursday.

Farmers is sending fewer executives to the Farmers Insurance Open later this month and returned a number of hotel rooms to the tour, along with plans for less activation, SBJ reported. Farmers Insurance also sponsors the APGA Tour event at Torrey Pines.

The decision comes at a time when it seems as if Farmers Insurance is scaling back its space in the golf world. Last week, Rickie Fowler confirmed to Golfweek he was no longer sponsored by the company.

“My contract was up, and I was told they weren’t looking to renew or extend,” Fowler said, noting the company has undergone a change in leadership at the top. “It was a good fit with them taking over at Torrey, a tournament I loved and was closest to where I grew up. I loved doing the fun commercials with them over the years, it was a great partnership, and it was their decision to scale back.”

Raul Vargas took over as CEO of Farmers a little more than a year ago. In August, Farmers laid off 11 percent of its workforce, about 2,400 employees.

It’s also the second notable company to not renew its contract with the PGA Tour. Wells Fargo will not renew its agreement after it expires this year to host the championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. SBJ reported the company wanted to remain a sponsor but didn’t want to pay the higher asking price.

Full-field events on the PGA Tour have been commanding between $13 million to $15 million per year from title sponsors.

RBC, which is the title sponsor for the Canadian Open and the Heritage at Hilton Head, a signature event, signed a one-year deal for 2024 instead of a long-term extension to get a feel of the changing golf landscape. Could this be the way many major companies are thinking with the tumultuousness in golf?

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‘Zero plans to go anywhere’: Rickie Fowler shoots down LIV Golf, dishes on sponsorship change

“I’m not in a position where I need to go out and slap a logo on,” said Fowler of his sponsorship status.

Rickie Fowler’s game returned to being so fine in 2023. He improved more than 100 spots to No. 14 in the final FedEx Cup standings.

Yet at the start of the new season at The Sentry in Hawaii something was different – he was missing the logos of two of his longtime sponsors, Farmers Insurance, which was on the right side of his hat, and Rocket Mortgage, which was on the right sleeve of his shirt. To quote one of the signature lines ad lines, what does that even mean, Rick?

For some, it fueled speculation that Fowler would be the next Tour pro to jump to LIV Golf for a lucrative guaranteed payday. No doubt that LIV would fancy adding Fowler, one of the game’s most popular players, to its growing stable of big-name players. But Fowler confirmed in a phone interview with Golfweek that he had “zero plans to go anywhere.”

So, what happened to his long-running relationship with Farmers, which sponsors the Farmers Insurance Open later this month at Torrey Pines in San Diego?

“My contract was up and I was told they weren’t looking to renew or extend,” Fowler said, noting the company has undergone a change in leadership at the top. It’s not uncommon for a new CEO to want to put his own spin on how the company spends its marketing dollars, especially if that leader isn’t a golfer or golf fan. “It was a good fit with them taking over at Torrey, a tournament I loved and was closest to where I grew up. I loved doing the fun commercials with them over the years, it was a great partnership, and it was their decision to scale back.”

But Fowler said he hasn’t parted ways with Rocket Mortgage, the Detroit-based mortgage lender, which serves as the title sponsor of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. In July, Fowler won the Rocket Mortgage Classic to end his winless spell. His deal with Rocket Mortgage expired at the end of the year, too.

“We have something in the works to move forward but it hasn’t been finalized yet,” he said and predicted the mortgage company’s logo would soon return to his shirt. “I think there is a good chance we will have the logo and move forward with the partnership there.”

Rickie Fowler poses with the trophy after winning the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club. (Photo: Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press)

Fowler was unaware of banter on social media that led some observers to make the leap that the missing logos meant he was LIV-bound.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said. “Seeing how much work the guys on the (PGA Tour) board, especially being around (Patrick) Cantlay during the off-season a little bit and leading up to this event, I’ve never seen a person be on the phone so much. These guys are pouring a lot of time and effort into it. I was on the PAC last year but have tried to stay out of the way because the guys that are in there, I trust. With Jordan, Cantlay, Tiger and the other guys, I’ve just trusted that we’re all going to end up in a good spot and I have zero plans to go anywhere.”

He termed it a sad state of affairs that players repeatedly have to declare their loyalty to the Tour at every turn, but he realizes that’s the current environment, especially after seeing Jon Rahm bolt for LIV.

“I don’t check social media a whole lot,” Fowler said. “I kind of run everything through Instagram but rarely see stuff talked about on there. I guess it’s the day and age we live in. There’s only so much you can believe or trust because anything can be put out there. I’m real excited for what’s coming for me and for the Tour and all the time and effort these guys have been putting into it.”

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Fowler, who has been one of the most in-demand players for endorsements isn’t necessarily scaling back his involvement in endorsing products or serving as a company spokesman – he said he remains open for business for the right opportunities.

“I’m not in a position where I need to go out and slap a logo on. I’m not going to do a deal unless it’s something I believe in and want to do,” he said. “Time is valuable and I don’t want to over-extend myself. Ten years ago, single me, it’s a lot easier to use that time for work-related stuff. Now, I want to make sure it’s worthwhile and with the right people. I don’t want to be a billboard or Nascar driver type of thing, but I do want to have a good, core group of partners.”

The big loser in all of this is the Fowler fans in San Diego. He’s scheduled to play the American Express and is planning to skip the Farmers Insurance Open. With the way the schedule is set up, he’s expecting to play the next two signature events – AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational – and in between he’s going to return to the WM Phoenix Open where he’s a past champion and has formed a deep bond with the Thunderbirds and the event.

“I rarely like to play more than three weeks in a row so it’s just how it all worked out,” he said.

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Golfweek’s Best rankings: The top five courses on the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing

We bet you can guess the No. 1 course on the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing, as judged by Golfweek’s Best raters. Can you get the next four?

With the PGA Tour having completed its two annual stops in Hawaii, play is shifting to the five-event West Coast Swing in California and Arizona.

Starting this week, players will tee off in The American Express in La Quinta, California, followed by the Farmers Insurance Open on two courses in San Diego; the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at three courses in Pebble Beach, California; the WM Phoenix Open in Arizona and the Genesis Invitational in Pacific Palisades, California.

That’s 10 courses in all, but which are the best of the West? We can use Golfweek’s Best ratings of thousands of courses in the U.S. for some insight.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses.

Below are the top five courses on the West Coast Swing with location, year of opening, designer and other information.

2022 Farmers Insurance Open Wednesday tee times, TV and ESPN+ streaming info

Everything you need to know for Wednesday’s first round of the Farmers Insurance Open.

The PGA Tour’s West Coast swing moves from the Coachella desert to the San Diego coast for this week’s 2022 Farmers Insurance Open.

The North Course and South Course at famed Torrey Pines play host once again to a loaded field of the PGA Tour’s best, including defending champion Patrick Reed and world No. 1 Jon Rahm, winner of the 2017 Farmers and last summer’s U.S. Open on the South Course at Torrey.

From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the opening round of play at the 2022 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. All times listed are Eastern.

Farmers: Yardage book

Tee times

Hole 1 – South Course

Tee Time	Players
12 p.m.	Pat Perez, J.J. Spaun, Sam Ryder
12:10 p.m.	Scott Piercy, Seung-Yul Noh, Will Zalatoris
12:20 p.m.	Hideki Matsuyama, Joaquin Niemann, Jason Day
12:30 p.m.	Phil Mickelson, Marc Leishman, Patrick Reed
12:40 p.m.	Gary Woodland, Corey Conners, Keith Mitchell
12:50 p.m.	Mito Pereira, Joshua Creel, Ryan Alford
1 p.m.	Andrew Novak, Justin Lower, Taylor Montgomery
1:10 p.m.	Rory Sabbatini, Alex Noren, Henrik Norlander Henrik Norlander
1:20 p.m.	Jhonattan Vegas, Peter Malnati, John Huh
1:30 p.m.	Sebastián Muñoz, Adam Long, Kevin Chappell
1:40 p.m.	Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson
1:50 p.m.	Hayden Buckley, Taylor Moore, Callum Tarren
2 p.m.	Vince Whaley, Alex Smalley, Kurt Kitayama

Hole 10 – South Course

Tee Time	Players
12 p.m.	Brice Garnett, Luke List, Joseph Bramlett
12:10 p.m.	Kevin Streelman, Wyndham Clark, Sepp Straka
12:20 p.m.	Joel Dahmen, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
12:30 p.m.	Jim Herman, J.T. Poston, Matthew Wolff
12:40 p.m.	Talor Gooch, Carlos Ortiz, Chez Reavie
12:50 p.m.	Adam Svensson, Lee Hodges, Jared Wolfe
1 p.m.	Greyson Sigg, Max McGreevy, Maxwell Sear
1:10 p.m.	Doc Redman, Harry Higgs, Hank Lebioda
1:20 p.m.	Kyle Stanley, Danny Lee, Adam Schenk
1:30 p.m.	Cameron Champ, Richy Werenski, Sung Kang
1:40 p.m.	Lanto Griffin, Martin Trainer, Scottie Scheffler
1:50 p.m.	Keegan Bradley, Cameron Tringale, Tyler McCumber
2 p.m.	Chad Ramey, David Skinns, Jared du Toit

Hole 1 – North Course

Tee Time	Players
12 p.m.	Chris Stroud, Peter Uihlein, Bronson Burgoon
12:10 p.m.	Austin Cook, Adam Hadwin, Scott Stallings
12:20 p.m.	Robert Streb, Dylan Frittelli, C.T. Pan
12:30 p.m.	Sungjae Im, Cam Davis, Michael Thompson
12:40 p.m.	James Hahn, Bill Haas, Tom Hoge
12:50 p.m.	Ben Kohles, Paul Barjon, Brandon Wu
1 p.m.	Nick Hardy, Dylan Wu, Brent Grant
1:10 p.m.	Emiliano Grillo, Nick Watney, Trey Mullinax
1:20 p.m.	Anirban Lahiri, Maverick McNealy, Brandon Hagy
1:30 p.m.	Justin Rose, Kevin Tway, Jimmy Walker
1:40 p.m.	Billy Horschel, Matt Jones, Brandt Snedeker
1:50 p.m.	Davis Riley, Aaron Rai, Curtis Thompson
2 p.m.	Brett Drewitt, Austin Smotherman, Michael Block

Hole 10 – North Course

Tee Time	Players
12 p.m.	Aaron Wise, Chesson Hadley, Matthew NeSmith
12:10 p.m.	Mackenzie Hughes, Brian Stuard, Camilo Villegas
12:20 p.m.	Sam Burns, Martin Laird, Charley Hoffman
12:30 p.m.	Max Homa, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka
12:40 p.m.	Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Rickie Fowler
12:50 p.m.	Seth Reeves, Sahith Theegala, Kamaiu Johnson
1 p.m.	Michael Gligic, Cameron Young, Kevin Yu
1:10 p.m.	Jason Dufner, Patrick Rodgers, Doug Ghim
1:20 p.m.	Jonas Blixt, Scott Gutschewski, Stephan Jaeger
1:30 p.m.	Ryan Palmer, Francesco Molinari, Patton Kizzire
1:40 p.m.	Hudson Swafford, Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele
1:50 p.m.	Taylor Pendrith, David Lipsky, Austin Eckroat
2 p.m.	Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Dawie van der Walt, Jonathan Byrd

TV, streaming, radio information

You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. ESPN+ is now the streaming home for PGA Tour Live. All times ET.

Wednesday, Jan. 26

TV

Golf Channel: 12:30-4:30 p.m.

Radio

SiriusXM: 1-7 p.m.

STREAM

ESPN+: 12-7 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 27

TV

Golf Channel: 3-7 p.m.

Radio

SiriusXM: 1-7 p.m.

STREAM

ESPN+: 12-7 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 28

TV

Golf Channel: 3-5 p.m.
CBS: 5-8 p.m.

Radio

SiriusXM: 3-8 p.m.

STREAM

ESPN+: 12:30-8 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 29

TV

Golf Channel: 2:30-4:30 p.m.
CBS: 4:30-8 p.m.

Radio

SiriusXM: 3-8 p.m.

STREAM

ESPN+: 12:30-8 p.m.

We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.

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Gary Woodland is enjoying life (and golf) without pain — finally

A hip labral tear turned what should have been a magnificent victory lap at the 2020 U.S. Open into a painful dose of mortality for Woodland.

He’s certainly not alone in this assessment, but Gary Woodland would prefer to expunge last year from his memory as quickly as possible.

“I’d like to erase 2020, but I think a lot of people would like to erase 2020 from what’s going on,” Woodland said after Thursday opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open, one in which he shot a silky smooth 66 with identical 33s to climb near the top of the leaderboard. “Hopefully, we can continue to stay where we’re at and continue to build on it.”

Where he’s at is a place without pain, for the first time in a long time. A hip labral tear had messed with the Topeka, Kansas, product for months and what should have been a magnificent victory lap at the 2020 U.S. Open turned into a painful dose of mortality. Woodland was at Winged Foot, but realistically, he shouldn’t gave been.

“The low point was Thursday of the U.S. Open. I mean. … I broke down, coaches wanted me to pull out. I ended up playing. It’s hard for me to pull out, it’s not in me,” he said. “You played in pain your whole life through all sports. It’s a little different out here, though. The best players in the world are out here day in, day out, and on top of that, you’re throwing Winged Foot in.

“But as defending champ, it meant a lot to me to be there, it meant a lot to me to play, so I tried to give it all I had.”

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He nearly opted to have surgery the following week, but instead decided on a series of injections and other means to ease the pain. In retrospect, he thinks surgery might have been a smarter decision, but he’s pleased with the way the pain has subsided in the new year.

Farmers Insurance Open: Leaderboard | Photos

Last week, he posted four rounds of 70 or less in finishing T-16 at the American Express. And on Thursday he looked like the Woodland of old, the one with four PGA Tour wins to his credit, as he played bogey-free golf at Torrey Pines’ North Course.

“I went and saw the doctor (after the U.S. Open) and they wanted to do surgery, so that was the low part for me. I just opted not to do that and try to take a different route and we’re here now, so that’s a good thing, but I have a long way to go,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent, but I’m not in pain and from that we can continue to build.”

Woodland was playing last season, but the pain kept him off the range. While others were honing their skills, he was simply trying to preserve his body for the next round.

But now, he’s been back to a standard routine with swing coach Justin Parsons, even though he’s only slipped into that schedule since January 7.

“I’m still working with Pete Cowen, but strictly on short game now. So (January 7th) was the first time JP and I really sat down and started working. We cranked up the speed that day,” Woodland said. “It was the first time I swung hard that day and I was sore the next day, so that was a little nerve-wracking. At that point, I wasn’t walking, either. … Last week was the first time I walked 18 holes. I walked with the girls in the morning and would come back and was locked up. It was a big test last week.”

A self-admitted Kansas athletic fan, Woodland said he’s been working through some bad habits that developed while trying to swing around the pain in his hip. On Thursday, though, he didn’t show any signs of reverting to those habits as he birdied two of his first five holes and didn’t give any shots back.

He stands two shots behind Patrick Reed and Alex Noren—each of whom opened the tournament with a round of 64—but Woodland seemed to have the widest smile at Torrey Pines.

“My body’s trending in the right direction. The future’s the big deal,” Woodland said. “As long as I continue to stay healthy, I think I can avoid surgery and I think I can have a long career out here.”

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First look: Rickie and Allison Stokke Fowler create funny Farmers Insurance ad from home

Rickie Fowler and his wife, Allison Stokke Fowler, had some fun with the idea of golf returning without a gallery. It became a commercial.

Golf’s back … ish.

While we’re still a month away from the PGA Tour’s return, competitive golf is coming to a screen near you. This Sunday, May 17 from 2-6 p.m. ET, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson will take on Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in TaylorMade Driving Relief, a charity skins match to benefit COVID-19 relief.

The event will be held at famed Seminole Golf Club with special precautions, including no fans.

Rickie and his wife, Allison Stokke Fowler, had some fun with the idea of golf returning without a gallery. The two shot a video in their backyard in Jupiter, Florida, titled “Crowd Control.” The Farmers Insurance spot will hit the air as early as late Friday/early Saturday and will also run during TaylorMade Driving Relief.

Here’s an exclusive first look:

In addition to “Crowd Control,” the following PSA – also shot by Allison – features Rickie talking about Farmers’ $1 million pledge to Off Their Plate, a fundraising initiative through World Central Kitchen that helps frontline COVID-19 healthcare workers and impacted restaurant shift employees. The PSA will air before and during the TaylorMade Driving Relief.

In line with social distancing, both videos were Fowler family productions, with Rickie and Allison doing all the filming at their home.

“It’s a privilege to support this event, alongside our brand ambassador Rickie Fowler, and provide much needed funds to Off Their Plate, so they can continue to help those most impacted in this uncertain time,” said Farmers Insurance CEO Jeff Dailey.

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