Luke List Wins Farmers Insurance Open In SD Playoff

SAN DIEGO, CA — Luke List birdied the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to defeat fellow American Will Zalatoris to win the $8.4 million Farmers Insurance Open Saturday at Torrey Pines, completing a comeback from a five- shot deficit.

List began the round among eight golfers five shots off the lead, tied for 19th, then shot a 6-under 66 on the South Course, including a birdie on the par-5 18th to drop to 15-under 273 for the tournament and a share of the lead.

List had to wait for nearly two hours for Zalatoris to complete his round and learn his fate. Zalatoris began his round tied for the lead with Australian Jason Day, dropped out of the lead when he bogeyed the par-4 first hole, then took a one-shot over Day with a birdie on the par-4 fifth hole which Day bogeyed.

Zalatoris added a shot to his lead with a birdie on the par-5 sixth hole then parred each of his final 12 holes for a 1-under 71. Zalatoris had a chance to win in regulation, but his 8-foot putt for a birdie on the 18th hole stopped rolling 2 inches to the left of the hole.

The playoff was held on the 18th hole. Both players put their tee shots into a fairway bunker, four inches apart. They got out of the bunker with second shots that put them yards apart on the fairway.

List put a 131-yard wedge approach shot to within a foot of the cup, then tapped in a birdie putt. Zalatoris missed a 16-foot putt that would have extended the playoff.

The 37-year-old List earned $1.512 million for his first victory in his 206 starts on the PGA Tour.

"To get that first win is definitely a relief," said List, who lost a playoff in the 2018 Honda Classic and tied for second in the 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship. "But I was just really happy with how positive I stayed. I was fortunate to get into a playoff and that was all I was really hoping for.

"To get in the playoff and hit the tee shot and not be in a good spot, I just kept telling myself I could birdie from there and I was able to do that."

The victory puts List in the Masters Tournament for the first time as a professional. He received an invitation to the 2005 Masters for his second- place finish in the 2004 U.S. Amateur and tied for 33rd.

"Living in Augusta now the last four years, driving past there, I can't tell you how much this means to me," List said. "That is a special place and I might get emotional. To tee it up in April in Augusta will be a lot of hard work, but just really special to have my family. And sleeping in my own bed will be really cool. I'm just over the moon about that."

Zalatoris was seeking his first PGA Tour title in his 40th start. He was the PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year in the 2020-21 season, when he had eight top 10 finishes, topped by a second-place finish in the Masters, his only runner-up finish on the PGA Tour before this week.

"I thought today I battled really well," said Zalatoris, who earned $915,000. "I thought the putt I hit on the 72nd hole, I thought I made it, I just needed a hair more speed. I've seen enough putts through the years coming down that hill to know that that putt just doesn't go left and it happened to go left."

Day, Spaniard Jon Rahm and American Cameron Tringale tied for third, one shot behind List and Zalatoris.

Rahm shot a 1-under 71, including two bogeys on the first five holes.

"I didn't feel like I was making terrible swings (at the beginning) but things weren't happening, and the few close ones I hit I wasn't able to make," said Rahm, the world's top-ranked men's golfer.

Rahm birdied the seventh, eighth and ninth holes, had five consecutive pars, a bogey on the par-4 15th and a birdie on the par-4 17th. He missed a 17-foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole that would have put him in the playoff.

"It's a challenging golf course out there," said Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open on Torrey Pines' South Course and whose first PGA Tour victory came at the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open. "You have to golf really, really well and it's too bad I couldn't."

Day moved into a tie for the lead with an eagle on the par-4 14th but fell back into a tie for third with a bogey on the par-3 16th. He had his fourth bogey of the round on the par-4 17th, then had his second birdie of the 18th to complete his round at even-par 72.

"Not saying I didn't play good today, I just didn't give myself opportunities, and when I did give myself opportunities, I left myself in a poor position on the putting green," said Day, who was seeking his 13th victory on the PGA Tour and first since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.

Day has had three stints atop the Official World Golf Ranking, the last from March 27, 2016-Feb. 18, 2017. He is now ranked 129th.

Day described the last three years as "a big ball of stress."

"It's just that you come from being the top of the world and then all of a sudden it kind of falls out beneath you," Day said. "You've just got to understand that it's going to take a long time for me. It may not for other guys, but for me it's taken a while and just stay patient with myself and just stay positive as much as possible because sooner or later it's going to change."

Tringale began play Saturday among three golfers tied for fifth, two shots off the lead, then shot a 2-under 70, including a birdie on the 18th hole.

The tournament was shifted to a Wednesday through Saturday format to avoid a conflict with Sunday's telecasts of the NFL conference championship games. The scheduled Saturday finish was the first on the PGA Tour since the 1996 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

List was joined at the Farmers Insurance Open by his wife Chloe, 7- month old son Harrison and 3-year-old daughter Ryann, who List said had been "telling me for a long time, `Daddy, I want a trophy' and I finally won a trophy."

List said he believes his daughter's desire for a trophy began when she saw the trophy for the RSM Classic, a fall tournament played on St. Simons Island, Georgia, "and thought there was candy in it, so it just became a funny joke that we used to say I'd go win a trophy."

The trophy for the Farmers Insurance Open "doesn't look like any candy can fit in here, but she was happy," List said.

—City News Service