The PGA Tour is nearing an agreement to move the Genesis Invitational to the Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif., according to a Golfweek report.
The San Diego Union-Tribue reported that the Tour had contacted Farmers Insurance Open tournament director Marty Gorsich last week about the possibility of moving the Genesis Invitational to Torrey Pines, which is hosting the Tour stop this week. Gorsich told the publication that no agreement had been reached as of Monday.
“No ink on paper, no handshakes, just questions and timing,” he told the Union-Tribune. “Nothing concrete.”
A PGA Tour communications official reached by the Times-Union on Monday night said the Tour had no comment on the report and did not yet have an update on their plans.
The Genesis Invitational, scheduled for Feb. 13-16, is one of the Tour’s Signature Events and is hosted by Tiger Wood. Its home course, the Riviera Country Club, is in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, among the most affected by the historic wildfires that have raged through the city and its suburbs since Jan. 6.
The PGA Tour announced last week that it was moving the tournament due to the near impossibility of holding a major sports event there. Riviera has not been damaged but infrastructure such as power and water have been affected and police and first responders can’t be spared for traffic and crowd control normally needed at a PGA Tour event.
The main reason for the Genesis moving to a course such as Torrey Pines, which is hosting the Farmers Insurance Open this week, is that spectator areas, concessions, bleachers and hospitality structures are already in place.
The Tour also was considering the TPC Scottsdale, where the WM Phoenix Open will be played in two weeks, and PGA West, where The American Express was contested last week, for the same reason.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Golfweek report: PGA Tour close to moving Tiger-hosted Genesis to Torrey
