Farmers Insurance Open, Round 1

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Phil Mickelson is seeking his fourth career victory at Torrey Pines, where he's making his season debut this week.

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Farmers Insurance Open

PGATOUR.COM's The Live Report has all the news and notes from the Farmers Insurance Open, and we'll be providing updates all day long for each round, so check back often. (All timestamps are Eastern Time.) PGA TOUR Shot Tracker | Live Scoring | PGA TOUR Network | Facebook | Twitter | FanZone | TOUR iPhone app

ROUND OF THE DAY (5:55 p.m.): Scott Piercy just matched his career-low with the round of the day, an 8-under 64 over on the North Course that puts him in the lead as play winds down.

The 64 came via a 29 on the front nine and with nine birdies and just one bogey for Piercy, who also had a chip-in for birdie on No. 3.

"Last year, I learned a lot," Piercy told GOLF CHANNEL's Jim Gray. "I felt like I should've won two or three times."

Instead, Piercy finished with eight top-25s, including a pair of top-10s. North Course or not, if he keeps playing this well -- he took just 20 putts today -- he might get his first win this week. -- Brian Wacker

TOUGH TRACK (5:40 p.m.): Of the top 23 names on the leaderboard right now, only three of them played the tougher South Course today. That makes Robert Allenby's 5-under 67 all the more impressive. He's the only player in the top 10 who played the South Course and he had a very clean card with five birdies, no bogeys and 83 percent of his greens in regulation and 71 percent of his fairways. -- Brian Wacker

THE DALY SHOW (5:27 p.m.): If you haven't seen John Daly' pants yet, you're either very lucky or totally missing out, depending on your perspective. Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of technology we're able to show you in the highlight to the left. It was also one of the few highlights for Daly, who is 7 over through 14 holes today. -- Brian Wacker

PHIL FOLLOW-UP (5:10 p.m.): Could Phil Mickelson's round have been better? Yes. But it could have been worse, too. Yes, he took 33 putts, but as Mickelson pointed out in a post-round interview with Jim Gray, he shot 2 under on a golf course that's tough to make putts on.

"The greens are fast and bumpy," said Mickelson, who didn't hit a single approach shot within 10 feet. "Not because they're not in great shape. They're so soft that every step is leaving a bunch of impressions."

As for Mickelson's overall impression? "I feel more ready to come out and shoot low scores than I ever have," he said. We'll find out when he plays the much easier North Course tomorrow. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON UPDATE (4:50 p.m.): Phil Mickelson's day was the definition of what you call an up-and-down one with five birdies and three bogeys. Mickelson hit 57 percent of his fairways and didn't make much with the putter, taking a less-than-pedestrian 33 putts after hitting 78 percent of his greens in regulation. Add it all up and it's a round of 2-under 70. On the bright side, at least that number came on the South Course. If he'd shot that on the North Course, he'd be in trouble. It also marks the third-straight year Mickelson has opened with a 70 here. Last year, he finished in a tie for 42nd. In 2008, he tied for sixth. -- Brian Wacker

Below is a look at Mickelson's scorecard from today. Click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker.

TWEET OF THE DAY (4:35 p.m.): "The Japanese view the Crane as a symbol of peace, much like the peace Ben must have felt after his 65 on the North Course at Torrey Pines." -- @ronsirak

That nice little one-liner is from Golf World's Ron Sirak, a former colleague of mine, who hit it right on the head with Ben Crane, who looked pretty relaxed in his round of 65, which, so far, is good enough to lead. -- Brian Wacker

CRANE THE EARLY LEADER (4:20 p.m.): Ben Crane had just one bogey and shot a back-nine 31 at Torrey Pines' North Course. That lead to a 7-under 65 to give him the early clubhouse lead at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Crane is coming off a 2009 season in which he had four top-10s, including one here, where he tied for seventh (opening-round 69 last year in case you were wondering). Take nothing away from Crane's round, but you can get away with hitting just 43 percent of your fairways on the North Course. On the more difficult South Course, that would present problems. Still, Crane did what he had to do and hit all but one green in regulation on his way to an eight-birdie afternoon. -- Brian Wacker

IMADA ON THE MOVE (3:55 p.m.): Someone knew what they were doing when they selected Ryuji Imada as a sleeper pick for this week. Indeed, Imada has three top-20 finishes the last three years here and more importantly he has a share of the lead at 7 under after shooting a back-nine 31 on the North Course and adding two more birdies on Nos. 1 and 2. -- Brian Wacker

PIERCY TAKES OVER (3:44 p.m.): Your new leader: Scott Piercy. He just made the turn in 29 on the North Course with his seventh birdie of the day. The 29 is two short of the 9-hole record set by Brandt Snedeker on the back nine of the North Course in 2007, but it has Piercy on pace for a career round -- his current best-ever score is a 64 three times, most recently last year in Las Vegas.

You have to like the fact that Piercy had eight top-25s, including a pair of top-10s, in his rookie year last season. You also have to like the fact that he erased a three-shot deficit with five holes to play to win the Ultimate Game in 2007 to win $2 million ... on his fifth wedding anniversary. Now all he needs is a PGA TOUR win. Click here to follow Piercy live wtih Shot Tracker for the inevitable 59 watch. -- Brian Wacker

DALY UPDATE (3:30 p.m.): If you haven't seen John Daly yet -- with what he's wearing today it would be hard not to -- he's got the zebra stripe pants going again. They're the same pattern as the ones he wore in the opening round of the Sony Open in Hawaii, only black and white as opposed to black and orange. Daly's game isn't so hot, though. The 2004 winner of this event is 3 over after a bogey on the eighth hole, where he ran his first one 5 1/2 feet by before missing the par putt coming back. Click here to follow his round live with Shot Tracker.-- Brian Wacker

CRANE ON THE RISE (3:20 p.m.): Ben Crane finished in a tie for seventh here last year -- one of four top-10s on the season. So far, it looks like he's in pretty good position to better that. He's 6 under through 14 holes and in a tie for the lead at the moment with birdies on six of his last eight holes. Even if they came on the North Course, that's still pretty impressive. If he can birdie his way in -- OK, so that's a lot to ask -- he would tie his personal best of 62. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON UPDATE (3:11 p.m.): Phil Mickelson is through 12 holes and 1 over after a bogey on No. 10, where he three-putted from just over 35 feet, and another bogey on No. 12, where he found the right fairway bunker off the tee and couldn't get home in two. On the day, Mickelson now has four bogeys and two birdies and continues to be a little wild with that driver while putting just OK.

A three-time winner here, Mickelson has only brokes 70 three times in the opening round in his last 10 trips to the Farmers Insurance Open. On two of those occasions, he won. -- Brian Wacker

LEADERBOARD UPDATE (2:47 p.m.): Three players -- Ben Crane, Steve Lowery and Scott Piercy -- are currently tied for the lead at 5 under, but don't expect it to mean much for whoever ends the day out front here. Only five times has the first-round leader gone on to win this event and the last was Johnny Miller in 1982. Also of note, all three of the aforementioned leaders are on the North Course. Let's see what they do on the South Course tomorrow. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON UPDATE (2:30 p.m.): It's been an up-and-down start -- literally in some cases -- for Phil Mickelson, who just made the turn in 1 under on the South Course. Mickelson has two birdies and a bogey on his round and while he's hit 78 percent of his greens in regulation, that 6-degree driver Mickelson is using this week has been a little wild at times with Lefty hitting just 57 percent of his fairways. Though Mickelson also reached the par-5 sixth in two. He's also taken 16 putts, and hasn't made any of significant length. Follow the rest of his round live with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker

BOO IN TIE FOR THE LEAD (2:05 p.m.): Boo Weekley didn't exactly get off to a great start this year with five of his eight rounds this year a 71 or higher. He doesn't exactly have a great track record -- or much of any track record -- at Torrey Pines, either. Weekley has played in this tournament just twice, finishing in a tie for 19th in 2008 and missing the cut in 2007. Today? He's in a tie for the lead at 4 under through his first nine holes on the North Course. -- Brian Wacker

MATTER OF COURSE (1:55 p.m.): Want more proof that the North Course is considerably easier than the South Course? Look no further than the current leaderboard -- eight of the top 10 names on it are guys playing on the North Course. And if you want to see more of Torrey Pines, click here for a tour. -- Brian Wacker

COURSE STORY (1:40 p.m.): Last year, the South Course at Torrey Pines ranked fifth-most difficult out of 51 courses on the PGA TOUR. This year shouldn't be much different -- though Ryan Palmer is 3 under through six holes and tied for the early lead.

The North Course? It was middle of the pack, ranking 28th. That's why most of the names at or near the top of the leaderboard right now are players on the North Course today. Take a look at the chart below for a year-by-year breakdown of the last five years of scoring averages here and you'll see the major difference. -- Brian Wacker

YOU TWEET, WE ANSWER (1:20 p.m.): "What course is the final round played on?" -- @krhein

That would be the South Course, or the big boy course, if you will. While players will play both the North and South the first two rounds, the South Course (the same one the U.S. Open was held on) will take over for the weekend. It measures a gaudy 7,568 yards, compared to just 6,874 yards for the North Course. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON UPDATE (1:05 p.m.): So far, it's been a ho-hum start for Phil Mickelson. Since striping his tee shot down the middle of the first hole on the South Course, Mickelson has missed one fairway and one green in regulation while taking seven putts through his first four holes. All that adds up to even-par for Mickelson, who last year finished over par (2-over 290) and in a tie for 42nd -- the only time he finished over par in 16 made cuts at Torrey Pines. -- Brian Wacker

SIM'S SLOW START (12:50 p.m.): Michael Sim earned an instant promotion to the PGA TOUR last year when he won three times on the Nationwide Tour. Unfortunately for the Aussie, success isn't coming so easily in the bigs. He's only two events into his TOUR career, but it's not exactly going as many expected.

Sim is 4 over through his first four holes today, making two bogeys and a double, the latter of which came on the 221-yard par-3 11th on the South Course, where he hit his first tee shot well over the green. He got on the green on his next shot, but three-putted form 64 feet. Last week, at the Bob Hope Classic, Sim shot an opening-round 73 and went on to finish in a tie for 63rd. -- Brian Wacker

WEATHERING THE STORM (12:35 p.m.): The famed South Course at Torrey Pines will have a little different look this week. Last week's storms that plagued the Bob Hope Classic hit San Diego even harder. Besides the four inches of rain that both sites received, Torrey Pines was also hit by gale-force winds that toppled more than 40 trees, including a rare Torrey Pine behind the fourth green and a huge old eucalyptus tree on the inside of the dogleg at the par-4 seventh. That might give players room to play to the green that didn't exist before.

The bunkers all had to be reworked, and the rough will be more lush. The greens will be softer, meaning putts might bounce a little bit more, making accuracy off the tees and in the fairways even more of a factor.

The best news this week is that the bad weather is supposedly gone. After some overnight rain on Tuesday/Wednesday, pro-am day was nearly perfect and the forecast is great through the weekend, allowing the courses to firm up, and therefore shorten up a bit for the weekend. -- Bob Stevens

LUKE'S TORREY LEGACY (12:25 p.m.): Another guy to keep an eye on this week is Luke Donald. He missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii in his only start of the year, but he has a strong track record at Torrey Pines. At least that was the logic in our Expert Picks. Donald has four top-10 finishes in six career starts, including a pair of runner-up finishes in 2004 and 2005. Donald just teed off on the South Course about 15 minutes ago. Click here to follow him live with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON ON THE MOVE (12:15 p.m.): The first round is under way and Phil Mickelson is on the golf coure, having just teed off. Mickelson is making his 2010 debut and yesterday said he expects this to be "one of my best seasons ever."

Mickelson certainly has a good track record in this event, having won here in 1993, 2000 and 2001. Overall, he has nine top-10s in 20 career starts. He's not the only Californian with past success at Torrey Pines, however -- 9 of the last 10 and 14 of the last 20 San Diego stops have been won by natives of California. Click here to follow Mickelson live with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker

Groups We're Watching

Tee time Players   Noon, Hole No. 10, North Phil Mickelson, Ryan Palmer, Marc Turnesa Mickelson opens his season on one of the easiest courses on TOUR as he chases a fourth victory in his hometown event. 1:10 p.m. ET, Hole No. 10, South Hunter Mahan, John Rollins, Troy Matteson Rollins finished second here last year and has opened the 2010 season on a strong note with two finishes in the top 15. 1 p.m. ET, Hole No. 10, North Bill Haas, Nick Watney, Ryuji Imada Haas and Watney are often mistaken for one another, and Haas joined Watney as a PGA TOUR winner last week.

MORE ROUND 1: Tee times | Inside the field | Inside the courses
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