Devin Cullen, senior golf course superintendent at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., took time out of an exceptionally busy schedule to talk to two sold-out Interactive Facility Tours during the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. Photo by Claudia Alterman
What a stretch for the maintenance team at Torrey Pines Golf Course. And it’s not over after the GCSAA leaves town.
Call it ironic. Interesting. Timely (in more ways than one). Perhaps no timelier than Tuesday’s GCSAA morning and afternoon Interactive Facility Tour titled “Mastering Tournament Prep and Recovery presented by The Toro Company” as part of the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego.
The Torrey Pines crew are mastering tourney prep in real time. Besides hosting more than 300 superintendents for the sold-out GCSAA tours, work at Torrey Pines has been pretty much non-stop. It was the site of the GCSAA Golf Championships’ Four-Ball at the North Course this past Saturday, and the Golf Classic at both the North and South courses on this past Sunday and Monday. No doubt it has been quite a happening place for Devin Cullen, senior golf course superintendent, Travis Rebischke, the course’s superintendent, and their team.
Their efforts were noticed worldwide on national television when the South Course hosted the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open, Jan. 22-25. Soon, due to unexpected circumstances, the spotlight will shine once again at Torrey Pines when the South Course hosts the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational from Feb. 13-16. In normal times, that tournament is played at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. That was scrapped when horrific wildfires ravaged areas near the club. The Genesis Invitational is a marquee event, and attracts some of the strongest fields for the year and is a player-hosted (Tiger Woods) Signature event on the PGA Tour.
Bottom line: This is unchartered territory for Torrey Pines — and for the PGA Tour. By hosting the Genesis Invitational, this will be the first time in modern annals of the tour’s history that a facility will host its regular PGA Tour event (the Farmers Insurance Open) and in three weeks host one again.
Cullen, who spent Tuesday with superintendents who visited his course for the tours, says his team is ready and able for more high-level golf. “My biggest concern was they (his team) were spent. But the team we have welcomed the challenge,” says Cullen, 13-year GCSAA member. “They want to challenge the best golfers. It’s a unique, fun opportunity. I’m right there with them.”
A fellow GCSAA member saw Cullen and his team take time to enlighten visitors about Torrey Pines’ operations Tuesday.
“It is always great to interact with old friends and become acquainted with new friends. The interactive tours give you an opportunity to do that,” says John Hansgen, CGCS, a 22-year GCSAA member who oversees Fox Hollow Golf Club in American Fork, Utah. “The bus ride and tours give you time to talk shop and network with folks from around the world engaged in the same field. The Torrey Pines interactive facility tour presents the chance to see the ins and outs of staging a world-class event, and the intimate settings provide the opportunity to discuss one-on-one the intricacies involved in such an undertaking.
“The insight Is helpful, and you come away with ideas or processes that can be implemented to your own unique situations. It's exciting to see what a half day tour can lead to in regard to solutions and relationships encountered along the way.”
For Cullen, his current stretch of hectic activity, kicked off by hosting the Farmers Insurance Open, had its benefits. “The biggest thing is the bulk of the heavy lifting is done,” says Cullen. “The golf course needed a rest. So did the staff. We’re repairing some divots, fixing ball marks. We’re not seeing a ton of growth. We fertilized inside the ropes, but didn’t add a lot of nitrogen. The greens aren’t thinning out and losing turf. We had to cancel some tee times (when Torrey Pines accepted the Genesis Invitational) and issued refunds.”
Cullen connected with Riviera CC superintendent and five-year GCSAA member Marshall Dick after the event shifted south to San Diego. Cullen says nearly two dozen of Dick’s staff will be volunteers at Torrey Pines.
The timing ended up being fortuitous in more ways than one for Cullen.
“Me and my wife usually schedule something on our anniversary (Feb. 10). We planned a cruise, but there wasn’t one scheduled that week this year. Now with the Genesis, it worked out not doing a cruise when we usually would. So now we’ll go later,” says Cullen, who is disappointed about not coming to the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show, his hopes thwarted by, as he says, “a million things going on.”
He’s got that right. Now, though, his team is better rested. In prep mode. And on a mission.
“I want people when they put on the TV to show what we’re capable of. I feel we’ve done pretty well where we’re headed,” says Cullen, “and show off what we’ve been able to do.”
Howard Richman is GCM’s associate editor.