The golf courses at Torrey Pines near San Diego "suffered significant damage in the Sunday night storm that blew through" and delayed the completion of the PGA Tour Farmers Insurance Open until yesterday, according to Kenney & Leonard of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. City of San Diego Deputy Dir of Golf Mark Marney yesterday estimated that there were "as many as 20 trees felled on the North and South courses, most of them eucalyptus." Marney said that "at least two prized Torrey pines also came down." Kenney & Leonard noted the reason for delaying the resumption of the tournament was the "cleanup required for the trees that were down." The "most troublesome was a 75-foot tall eucalyptus that fell into the fairway at the par-4 15th." At first light, "more than a dozen men began working with chain saws to cut up the tree." The tree on 15 was a "signature on the hole because it obstructed a shot to the green if a golfer drove too far to the left." The hole will "almost certainly look and play differently now." There also was "one massive tree down to the left of the 18th fairway, near the fairway bunkers." Large branches from several other trees "were sheared off and laying on the ground on that hole." Large trees were also "down to the side of the ninth and 12th fairways, and a tree that fell next to the 16th tee crushed a small maintenance shed" (SANDIEGOUNIONTRIBUNE.com, 2/1). Golfer Ben Crane called the tree damage he witnessed "awful." Crane also said the Tour "made the right call" to not allow fans on the course for the completion of the tournament, adding it was a "very dangerous situation" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/2).
