Torrey Pines South Course

Torrey Pines South Course sits on a piece of San Diego coastal-bluff land that the City of San Diego owns and operates as a municipal facility — one of the few true municipal courses in American major-championship rotation. William Bell designed the original South Course in 1957, and Rees Jones redesigned the routing in 2001 with the explicit goal of bringing it to U.S. Open standard. The work paid off: the USGA awarded the 2008 U.S. Open to Torrey Pines, the first municipal course since Bethpage Black to host the championship, and Tiger Woods won in a Monday playoff over Rocco Mediate on a broken leg that became the definitive Woods major narrative. The 2021 U.S. Open returned to the same routing, with Jon Rahm winning his first major.

The South Course plays around 7,800 yards par 72 from the championship markers, with kikuyu fairways and a slope in the upper 140s. The third hole — a 198-yard par-3 with the green set on a coastal bluff and the Pacific visible behind — is the routing's photographic signature. The eighteenth, a 570-yard par-5 with a pond fronting the green, has decided several of the tournament's modern editions. The Farmers Insurance Open plays the South Course every January as the PGA Tour's first West Coast stop; the tournament typically runs the South for the closing rounds with the easier North Course as Thursday and Friday rotation.

Torrey Pines is public-access daily-fee, with tee times opening 90 days in advance for San Diego residents and shorter windows for non-residents. The municipal pricing remains accessible by championship-course standards. Walking is permitted; the routing is long enough that most rounds use carts.

San Diego coastal climate keeps Torrey Pines playable year-round. The Pacific marine layer holds morning rounds in fog through May and June, lifting by late morning. The wind off the bluff picks up reliably through the afternoon, which is why U.S. Open setups have favored the South for the championship's final stretch.