Crews working to prepare Torrey Pines for golfers

As PGA golfers finish off their tournament at La Quinta this weekend, the course crews at Torrey Pines are busy mopping up after the course got nearly four inches of rain, getting the course ready for the Farmers Insurance Open.

“If the forecast is correct we will have courses ready for play next week, however it will be soft and wet beginning the week and will get drier each day,” golf operations manager Jon

Maddern wrote in an e-mail early Friday. “We always seem to have a rain event during this tournament each year. Hopefully after today we will be done.”

By Friday morning, he reported, they had received about 3.71 inches of the wet stuff.

“In addition we have had numerous trees uprooted on both courses due to the excessive saturation of the ground and the high wind gusts of over 45 mph on Tuesday and (Wednesday),” he wrote .

The staff is working to get trees and debris cleaned up as well as removing debris and standing water from the bunkers and repairing washouts along the edges.

“Mowing will be started when ground firms up some,” he added.

Play begins Thursday in the tournament, which until this week had been without a sponsor and had reverted to its historic name, the San Diego Open. For information, go to