PGA Tour makes a bold move for 2022 Farmers Insurance Open to avoid going up against NFL

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA Tour vs. the NFL is a mismatch.

Basically, anyone butting heads with the behemoth that is the NFL gets battered on TV and in social and traditional media circles.

So the PGA Tour is picking it battles.

On Tuesday, the PGA Tour announced that the Farmers Insurance Open, to be played the last week of January, will have a Saturday finish. With the NFL expanding its season, the NFC and AFC championship games will be played Jan. 30, forcing the PGA Tour’s hand.

Thus, the annual gathering on the South Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego will be played Wednesday through Saturday, with the final two rounds being aired on CBS and both featuring an 8 p.m. ET finish.

Patrick Reed is the defending champion.

“The teamwork, flexibility and creativity exhibited by the PGA Tour and Farmers Insurance to adapt the schedule for a Saturday finish was outstanding,” Dan Weinberg, executive vice president for programming at CBS Sports, said in a press release. CBS will air the AFC championship that weekend.

In another change, the third playing of the diversity-driven Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour’s Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines will be a 36-hole event, with the first round on Jan. 29 on the North Course and the final round the following day on the South Course.

The Golf Channel will broadcast the final round, the first time the APGA will be televised.