When the Farmers Insurance Open had ended Saturday night and Harris English had a moment to let his fifth career PGA Tour victory sink in, the satisfaction came from several directions.
English’s one-stroke victory over Sam Stevens was his first in three and a half years, his first since serious hip surgery nearly three years ago and his first as a father, the glow evident on his face as he held his 1-year-old daughter, Emilia, on the 18th green after winning.
There was also the inner glow of having won the hard way, grinding out a victory in difficult conditions on Torrey Pines’ demanding South Course, a place where English relishes the demands of one of the PGA Tour’s hardest courses.
“I knew it was going to be a tough day today, I love that. I love this golf course when it plays really tough,” English said after shooting a final-round 73 in which he hit just four fairways but held off Stevens, who started the final round four strokes behind the winner, by a stroke with a total of 8-under 280.
English has flirted with winning at Torrey Pines previously. He lost a playoff to Jason Day in the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open and finished third in the 2021 U.S. Open there, having a chance to win until Jon Rahm birdied the last two holes.
Playing partner Andrew Novak, who finished third two strokes behind English, admired how English pulled together the final round, finishing with a series of 12 clutch pars after his lone birdie of the final round on the par-5 sixth hole.
“He played it perfectly,” Novak said.
When it comes to finding his comfort zone, English favors places where pars matter and birdies don’t necessarily come in bunches.
“It kind of goes back to when I was a kid, like playing in the U.S. Juniors, the U.S. Amateurs, I loved those big-time golf courses with thick rough,” English said. “You’ve got to play chess out there, it’s not some of these golf courses where to me is kind of a dart test and a putting contest.
“Tests like this, you’ve got to miss in the right spots, you’ve got to grind out there and pars are good and that’s kind of all you’re trying to do. I don’t know what it is, I just love U.S. Open-type setups and Torrey Pines has always been one of my favorites.”
It also helped that English’s swing coach, Justin Parsons, reminded him recently to be himself, to play to his strengths, rather than chase numbers on a computer screen or distance in the gym.
“We all want to be so perfect out here and I’m obsessed with this game, I’m obsessed with getting better. It’s easy to fall in a little bit of a trap of what your swing looks like, what the Trackman numbers say and what on a video it should look like and perform,” English said.
“So when you kind of get in those ruts, you kind of lose your competitiveness, you lose the fun in shaping shots and hitting different shots. That’s kind of what we’ve worked on last week …
“(Parsons) said it was time to get back to playing, getting back into having fun on the range like I was a kid back where I grew up, was hitting different shots, curving it around trees. That’s kind of how I grew up playing and just to have fun with it. Whatever I see, get up there and hit it instead of trying to be so perfect.”
Ron Green Jr.