The 2025 PGA Tour season is only 4 weeks old, and there are already 2 wins by former UGA golfers.
You’ve seen that Sepp Straka got his 3rd Tour win at the American Express last week. Harris English saw it up close and personal, and decided he wanted a piece of that. So six days later, English wrapped up The Farmer’s Insurance Open in San Diego.
The challenging Torrey Pines is an annual early season stop on the Tour schedule. The municipal complex boasts two 18 hole courses, the major-caliber South and the less difficult North. At the Farmers, players alternately play both courses the first two days, a cut is made to the top 70, and the remaining players stay on the South course the final 2 rounds.
The tournament started Wednesday, a day earlier than usual or a couple of reasons: One is they hold an AJGA tournament the next day on the South course using the same conditions as the PGA event. But the real reason is they don’t want to fight for eyeballs against the NFL’s conference championship games on Sunday. The Valdosta native English, who played collegiately at Georgia from 2008-2011, shot a tidy 68 the first round on the North.
Thursday’s round on the South was very different. High winds in the area kicked up in the afternoon, gusting to over 35 mph. At one point, play was halted as balls were moving on the greens and the conditions became too difficult. They eventually restarted, but several players had to finish their 2nd rounds Saturday morning. Harris was in the midst of this, but was able to finish Thursday and his 73 actually moved him up the leaderboard.
Friday was more typical southern California January, and while cool, English’s putter got hot. Pars on the first 5 holes were boring, so he made birdies on 3 of the next four. He closed out the 3rd rounds with birdies on his final 3 holes, and grabbing the solo lead heading into Saturday’s final round.
English played a cool and calm final round, making up and downs and crucial pars. His main competitors fell behind other than newbie Andrew Novak who kept within a shot of the lead. Yet English never faltered, and beat the field by not making mistakes. English won by a single shot, with the only scare coming after a wayward tee shot on the final hole. And even that was quickly rectified thanks to a perfect rescue shot and a safe but smart approach to the par 5 green.
Harris wins $1,674,000 with the victory, but just as importantly moved into the top 10 in FedEx Cup points. Greyson Sigg hung around and snagged a top 10 (T9), and rookie Will Chandler missed the cut.
The Tour heads up the Cali coast for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which once again has Signature Event status (smaller field, bigger purse, elevated points available). Eight former Bulldogs are scheduled to tee it up so there will be a great representation of red and black, as well as chance for 3 in a row for UGA products.
So if you’re looking for something to cheer you up about Bulldog athletes and you can’t wait until the Philly Dawgs take on the referees KC Chiefs, you can always look to golf. Enjoy, and as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!